Reawakening
by QueenOfDragons2
Summary: 100 years after the demise of the FM, the remaining stitchpunks live in peace. However, frightening events begin occuring when beings called "hunans" arrive, and something startling is discovered about 7... Please review!
1. Prologue, part 1

The sound of raindrops hitting the ground was the only thing that kept 9 awake. That, and the memories of what had happened over the last few days. He still couldn't get over the lingering guilt caused by the knowledge that he had caused it. If he hadn't put the Talisman in the Machine, he would've been in Sanctuary with the others, free from fear without the Beast. The others wouldn't have died.

He also couldn't help but wonder what the Machine would've done if it had known that the very beings it was hunting contained pieces of its creator's soul, or if it even would've cared.

He wished he could sleep. 7, 3, and 4 had been asleep for a while. The whole experience had been exhausting, and they all needed rest.

9 looked at the Talisman he held in his hand. He wondered if the Scientist could have predicted what it had caused. Probably not.

As he continued to listen to the rain, he was glad that the roof of the old house they were in was intact enough to keep out the rain.

Suddenly, the sound of the rain and his turmoil of emotions stopped bothering him.

Just before he fell asleep, he thought he heard a voice say, "Sleep well, 9. You deserve it." He didn't recognize the voice.

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_Drip…drip…drip…_ 9 awoke to the sound of slowly dripping water. He had gotten a surprisingly restful night of sleep.

"Good morning, 9. I see you slept well." It was the voice again. This time, he realized that it sounded very vaguely like the Scientist.

9 looked over at 7 and the twins. They were still asleep.

He looked out through a crack in the wall and saw that the sun was rising. It caused the almost cloudless sky to turn a beautiful array of colors.

7 and the twins began to wake up. 7 was surprised that she had slept so well. Except for maybe that dream…

3 and 4, ever so hyper, left for the library, intent on continuing their research. 9 was about to follow them when he noticed that 7 was still sitting on the pillow they had slept on. He couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about.

He walked over to her. When she noticed him, she said, "I had a weird dream last night. I was somewhere dark and I was lying down. I could hear someone talking, but it was faint and distant. I couldn't move and my whole body was sore, especially my left side. Then it was quiet for a long time and then…and then…I heard 2's voice. He said, 'I don't know, 9. I just don't know.' And…it all seemed so real…I thought it was actually happening until I woke up." She sighed and looked at him. "I miss him. I miss all of them. I know they're free now, but I just wish that-."

9 said, "I know. I feel that way too."

7 smiled and got off the pillow.

Suddenly, she heard a voice say, "My, my, my, 7! What an interesting dream!" 9 heard it as well.

7 said, "Wha- who said that?"

The voice said, "Ha ha ha! Oh you know me! Ha ha, You know me VERY well!"

"Who are you?"

"You'll find out. Don't bother trying to find me. You'll only find me if I want to be found."

"What?"

There was no response.

7 quietly said, "That was weird."

9 simply nodded.

The two spent the rest of the day at the library, learning about the things 3 and 4 had already discovered. It was the only thing they could really do at this point.

The voice would occasionally comment on something it found "interesting". Every time it did, all four of them would hear it and wonder who it was.

At the end of the day, 7 said, "9, what do you think about living here at the library?"

He said, "I'm fine with it."

The voice suddenly said, "If you don't mind, would you all step outside for a few minutes?"

Unsure but curious, they all left the library. The voice gave them directions that led them to a very large clearing outside the town. The wind had been blowing a bit faster than normal.

The clearing was foggy and it was difficult to see very far.

7 said, "Why did you make us come here?"

The voice said, "I had to ensure that I did not accidentally destroy something when I turned into a more physical form. It won't look exactly like me, but that won't matter."

The wind began to blow faster, causing the fog to swirl around. The fog bunched together in front of them, forming a massive cloud. It got larger and larger until it was slightly larger than the Machine when it was fully intact. A circular red spot formed in the fog, appearing as though something was shining a red light from inside the cloud.

The ragdolls just stared at it.

The voice, this time coming from the fog, said, "You're considerably calmer than I thought you would be."

9 said, "You might want to look at yourself."

The red spot moved as though it was trying to look at itself.

It said, "What? That's it? A giant cloud of fog? Well that's disappointing."

7 said, "What did you expect?"

"I expected to look a bit more like myself, not like a giant cloud of fog."

The ragdolls were silent.

"Just to reassure you, I have no intention of harming you, directly or otherwise. Not sure if I could do that even if I wanted to, at least while I'm like this."

7 said, "Who are you?"

The cloud of fog said, "You still haven't figured it out yet? I'm- No… I'd better leave my identity for you to figure out."

The cloud then began to move towards the town.

9 said, "Where are you going?"

The cloud said, "I'm going to fix the bridge leading to the factory."

"Why?"

"Because I want to."

As it left, the ragdolls looked at each other and went back to the library.

Later that night, 9 left to see how the bridge repairs were going. By the time he got there, the cloud had finished. It looked as though the bridge had never collapsed in the first place.

When the cloud noticed 9, it said, "I had to go into the ravine to get it, but it's fully repaired."

9 couldn't resist asking, "You-you didn't happen to see 6's body, did you?"

The cloud looked at him. "6's body? Heh heh heh. Looking for that is pointless."

It was right. There was no point in trying to find the others' bodies. The others were gone forever.

The cloud said, "I know what you're thinking. You will see them again someday. When, I can't say, but you will see them again." The cloud then carefully went over the bridge to the ruins of the factory.

9 knew what it had meant. He and the remaining ragdolls would die someday. Whatever controlled the cloud apparently liked them, but there was no way it could prevent them from eventually dying (at least he didn't think so). He couldn't help but wonder how it had been able to use fog to make a somewhat physical body.

He began to think about 7's dream. What had happened to her? Why did she hear 2's voice? Was it something that could've happened that didn't? Or was it just a dream? He was thinking about it so hard and concentrating so much, he failed to realize that he was walking towards the ravine…

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7 was getting very concerned. 9 had been missing for hours.

Outside, she heard the voice yell, "7! Have you seen 9 anywhere?"

7 went outside, saw the cloud of fog, and said, "I was wondering that myself."

"Well, last I saw him, he was near the bridge I fixed and… Oh no."

"What is it?"

"I just thought of something. We need to get to the ravine fast."

The cloud quickly moved towards the bridge, with 7 and the twins following.

The cloud had moved a lot quicker than the ragdolls. By the time the ragdolls had gotten to the recently repaired bridge, the fog had already reached the bottom and was climbing back up.

7 and the twins were very impressed at how well the cloud of fog had repaired the bridge.

The fog appeared over the edge. "Well, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is, 9 was at the bottom of the ravine." The fog then seemed to extend a part of itself. When it moved back, 9 was lying on the ground, his eyes closed.

"The good news is, I'm quite certain he's still alive."

7 almost didn't hear it say that.

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The only thing that 9 was aware of was a numbing pain all over his body. He couldn't move and he couldn't hear anything. He had no idea what had happened.

Suddenly, everything seemed to fade away. It was replaced by a new feeling. He felt like he was running and everything seemed to come back. It was the middle of the day, but he couldn't tell where the sun was. He was definitely running, but he didn't know what he was running towards. He then saw it. 7 was lying on the ground, unmoving. He felt a sudden urgency. When he got to 7, he got on his knees and gently shook her, hoping for some kind of response. One of her fingers twitched just a little.

Suddenly, a voice cut through the scene. "Open your eyes, 9. What you're currently seeing isn't actually happening." It was a voice he had never heard before.

He then realized that he was waking up.

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7 felt relieved when she saw 9's eyes blink open.

When the cloud of fog noticed, it said, "Thank goodness you're awake. I was getting quite concerned about you."

9 said, "What happened?"

"Well, I found you at the bottom of the ravine, though I'm pretty sure you were slowed by something because you were just unconscious."

"Where did you find me?"

"The bottom of the ravine. Judging by your tone of voice, you weren't aware of that."

9 suddenly felt like something had happened when he was down there, but he couldn't remember what.

7 found herself asking, almost automatically, "How were you able to turn yourself into fog?"

The cloud of fog, realizing she was talking to it, said, "I somehow managed to get a very large amount of life force, and no, I don't know how I got that amount of life force in the first place. By the way, the sunrise is quite beautiful."

The ragdolls looked at the sunrise for a few moments. When they looked back to where the fog had been, it was completely gone.

7 said, "Okay…"

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For the rest of the day, 9 tried to remember what had happened in the ravine. All he had managed to recall was accidentally stepping over the ravine, using his fingers against the wall of the ravine to slow down, and being able to land on the bottom without being harmed. He had then turned around, but he didn't remember what he had seen or what happened afterwards. It was almost as though his memories were being repressed…

Suddenly, 7 grabbed his wrist. She said, "9, I think you should see this."

She took him and the twins outside. Almost immediately, they could see it. The factory had been (as far as they could tell) rebuilt. They all walked towards it, wondering just how much of it had been rebuilt. When they got close, they all momentarily wondered if the machinery was going to switch on.

A voice said, "Don't worry. Nothing's going to suddenly turn on. Only the Fabrication Machine could control that, and I can't activate it."

The ragdolls spun around to see the cloud of fog looming over them.

7 said, "How in the world did you manage to rebuild it THAT quickly?"

"Er, I don't know. It took a lot less time than I thought. Go on in."

The ragdolls just stared at the red spot in the fog.

It groaned and said, "I'm serious, nothing in there is suddenly going to turn on by itself, and I won't follow you."

7 said, "Why do you want us to go in there?"

"I want you to be able to see how well I can build and create."

The ragdolls immediately went to the entrance to the factory, not because they wanted to see the inside, but because they wanted to get away from the increasingly sinister cloud of fog.

The cloud of fog had done a surprisingly good job of repairing the factory. It looked as though it had never been blown up. Part of the roof of the Fabrication Machine's chamber was still collapsed, though. They, somewhat thankfully, did not see 8's body in the chamber. However, they did see the Beast's body (still with its head unattached) and the inactive body of the Fabrication Machine itself. It had been repaired so well, it looked as though it was going to get up at any moment.

At that point, the ragdolls had had enough. However, the pipe that led directly to the outside of the building had been blocked off by a rock. The main entrance had also been blocked off. In fact, every way out of the factory had been blocked off one way or another. The only way that hadn't been blocked off was the hole in the roof, but there was no way they could get to it.

Upon realizing this, 9 said, "We're locked in."

7, her mind filled with unpleasant memories, said, "I think we can tell that."

"Why did it want us in here?"

"I don't know, but I'm not sure if we can trust it anymore…"

_You're absolutely right, 7. You can't trust it._ A voice echoed through their minds.

9 recognized the voice. It was the voice that had told him that his vision of 7 lying on the ground wasn't real. He could also hear it better. It was the most unnatural voice he had ever heard, neither male nor female. It wasn't mechanical, though.

7 said, "Who's talking?"

_I am. And don't bother looking for me. I am in a location that is very, very, very far away from you._

"Who are you?"

_My name is not important. What IS important is that you must keep the Talisman at all times._

9 said, "I left it back at our home."

_The library? Well, it'll be safe for a while, but you must not let that "cloud of fog" get it. If that thing gets it, then it'll…uh…how shall I say this…it'll be able to get enough life force to revive itself. If that happens, then I'll have just one real option left…and I don't want to do that because I think I'll end up destroying myself._

9 said, "What is that option?"

_You know the white circle in the sky that appears during the night? It's called the moon, and my last real option would involve bringing it down to the ground at a rather fast pace._

"Oh."

7 said, "I don't think we're going to be able to keep the Talisman away from it for very long."

_I was prepared for that. If it doesn't get the required life force to revive itself by the morning of the 10__th__ day after the defeat of the Fabrication Machine, then I'll be able to strip it of all its life force and it'll be gone forever. Unless, of course, the B.R.A.I.N. is fully repaired and reactivated at a later date._

"B.R.A.I.N.?"

_The B.R.A.I.N. is what controls the Fabrication Machine. I feel like I'm telling you too much, but I can't help myself._

"How do you know so much about that thing?"

_I have been watching this world for a long time. I must tell you how it was able to get so much life force. It is because I gave it the life force of all the humans that had perished because of it. I did so in the hopes of giving it the empathy and logic of a human. From the way it first acted, I thought it had worked, but it didn't. All I really did was end up reviving it in a way. I've already said this, but I cannot stress it enough. You MUST NOT LET IT GET THE TALISMAN._

7 said, "Can't you strip it of its life force now?"

_I would, but that would be rather pointless._

"Why?"

_There is currently no way for me to get to your location without losing a very large amount of my powers. But that's beside the point. I should tell you that the "cloud" is NOT currently looking for the Talisman, but once it's finished with its current task, it'll go after it, and it will go as far as almost completely destroying the entire town to find it._

"Almost?"

_The only building it would never dream of damaging is the Scientist's house. Despite its violent personality, it still cares about the man that created it. It's the safest place in this city._

7 said, "That's good, but we can't get out of here."

_Don't worry. At dawn tomorrow, return to the Fabrication Machine's chamber. There will be a hole in the ground. It is a tunnel to the outside of the building. Don't go into the chamber before then or you will get caught by the "cloud" when you come out the other side. The sun is currently rising. I will contact you again when you should go into the chamber._

9 said, "Why shouldn't we go in the chamber before sunrise?"

There was no response.

7 sighed and said, "Well, looks like we'll just have to wait."

**Author's note: I'm going to end the chapter here because it's getting long. For those of you that are wondering, I use the **"Insert story breaker here" **things because 1, my original line breaks didn't show up and 2, it adds some humor. The voice's statement about bringing down the moon is a reference to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, a game that I find interesting. If the story seems like it's going too fast, I apologize, for I was originally trying to fit the events of nine days into this story, but that ended up not being the case. I should point out that the story so far is NOT the main story, but I felt the need to include some of the back story.**

**I would also like to mention that I am working on another story at the same time as this, and I might be working on them on and off. One more thing: it has been at least a year since I've seen the movie, and I don't remember all the details. I would appreciate it if somebody would remind me which twin used their eyes to project film during the movie. That's it.**


	2. Prologue, part 2, and the Incident

7 used the time they had before they could leave to get some sleep. She had been unusually tired. The twins were also tired.

9 was glad that they were able to sleep. He knew that if he fell asleep in the factory, he would very likely have unpleasant nightmares. Despite this, he was able to fall asleep without much difficulty.

He had another very realistic dream that wasn't as unpleasant as he thought it would be. 7, wearing her bird skull helmet, was on her knees in a small room with a wooden floor. He was also on his knees, holding her in his arms. 7 was also bent over and her arms were clutching her abdomen. He tried to put his hand where her arms were, but she seemed rather defensive of that area. Whatever was wrong wasn't obvious. She looked at him for a few moments before looking back at herself. There was a look of helplessness and mild horror on her face.

9 then awoke from the dream with a start. He could feel 7's hand on his arm. When he looked up at her, he could tell that he had been asleep for longer than he thought. He couldn't resist telling her about the brief dream he had had.

When he was done, she said, "Hmm. I'd like to know what'd make me do that."

_Go to the chamber. Everything is ready._ It was the voice again.

The four ragdolls went into the Fabrication Machine's chamber and, to their slight surprise, there was now a small hole in the middle of the room. 9 was the first to go in. He dropped about a foot into the hole and saw that it continued into a tunnel in front of him. He motioned for 7 and the twins to follow.

After going through the tunnel for a while, they could hear something above them.

_It's closer than I thought it was. 9, if you and the others look carefully, you might be able to see past the fog. Remember, when you get out, get the Talisman, and get to the Scientist's house._

The tunnel's exit was under some debris to hide it, but the ragdolls could easily get out. Upon getting out from under the debris, they could see the cloud of fog a few feet closer to the factory, pacing left to right. The fog didn't seem so thick anymore.

The ragdoll quickly and quietly ran to the bridge that was the only link to the town.

They were just about at the bridge when a voice behind them yelled, "HEY!" It was the cloud.

The ragdolls began running as fast as they could to the library. As soon as 9 picked up the Talisman, they felt the ground shake a little.

_It caught up to you. There is no time to lose. 9, you must lead the others to the Scientist's house._

They quickly went outside and saw the "cloud of fog" looking for them. Except it didn't look like a cloud of fog anymore. It was the Fabrication Machine…and it was semi-transparent.

Its voice said, "I know you're there. I can sense you. Give me the Talisman. I know you have it."

They were able to avoid it…for a few minutes.

When it eventually spotted them, the ragdolls fortunately were almost at the Scientist's house. They were able to get to the top floor before the Fabrication Machine (or rather, its ghost) could get them.

When it realized that they had run into the house of its creator, it said, "I see. A bit clever on your part. But you can't stay in there forever. I'll just wait, no matter how long." It then began to circle the building.

_Very good. Just stay in there and you'll be fine._

7 looked around. Her memories of this place were coming back to her.

_7, 9, I need you to do something._

7 said, "Didn't you just tell us to stay in here?"

_I did. What I need you to do can be done in this room._

9 said, "What do we have to do?"

_First, lie down and go to sleep. When you wake up, you won't remember what happened, but you will wake up in time to watch the Fabrication Machine's absolute end. Someday, you'll find out what happened, either by you remembering or by me telling you._

"What are you going to do?"

_Don't worry. You'll be safe._

With minor hesitance, 7 and 9 laid down and closed their eyes. They both felt a strange tingling sensation all over their bodies, followed by a weightless one…

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The first thing that they were aware of when they woke up was that they felt terrible. 9 felt heavy and tired while 7 felt nauseous and a bizarre sound kept going through her head. It was like a heartbeat, breathing, and murmuring rolled into one, disturbing sound.

When 9 looked at the twins, he knew that he and 7 had been asleep for days.

_That took a bit longer than I anticipated, but you succeeded, although you did something that I never would have expected…_

9, who was starting to get over it, said, "What did we do?"

_Well, I don't want to give it away, but you and 7…made a promise to someone._

"Who?"

_I won't tell you exactly who, but she made you promise her something in exchange for a service, and she made you promise it on your souls, and that kind of promise cannot be broken._

"What did we promise?"

_I don't want to give it away, but it wasn't exactly a bad promise. The likelihood of any of you being permanently harmed is extremely low, and you get something in the end. Of course, it will cause confusion and shock, but that's to be expected._

"What's wrong with 7?"

_Hmm. The effects shouldn't last that long. Of course, the effect of the promise you two made is probably what is causing her nausea, which is unsurprising considering that it's going to affect her the most._

"When is it going to affect her, and how?"

_In approximately 99 years and 8 months. Help 7 outside. There's something you'll all want to see._

9 gently helped 7 up and supported her on his shoulder. They carefully went outside to see…the Fabrication Machine's ghost lying on the ground, its red eye dimming.

When it saw them, it feebly stretched one of its hands toward them and weakly said, "You…you…did this…to me… I…" Its eye went completely out and its hand dropped. The ghost faded away into thin air.

The ragdolls stood there for a long time before going back to the library…

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As the months passed, things began to change. Plants began to grow in the clearing outside the town. A year after the defeat of the Fabrication Machine, the clearing was almost overrun with plants that had grown from seeds that had not been affected by the poison gas, which were being supplied with water by a mighty river that had appeared in the clearing over the year (although the town had remained intact). By the end of the second year, insects and other small animals were thriving. By the end of the third year, medium sized herbivores and small carnivores had appeared (the ragdolls noticed that one of the species greatly resembled the Beast; cats). By the end of the fourth year, medium carnivores and a few large herbivores had arrived. The fifth year, flying animals had evolved (once again, one of the flying species greatly resembled the Beast that had had wings; small dragons). The sixth year, snakes of all sizes had come (for what they hoped would be the last time, one species of snake greatly resembled the Beast that had the long body and needles; giant cobras). The seventh year, the ragdolls had realized something. Both they and the town had hardly changed appearance-wise. The eighth year, some of the animals began migrating to other places during certain times of the year. The ninth year, the hunans had come.

The hunans looked almost exactly like humans, except their skin seemed darker, and they wore animal skins for clothes, but they were surprisingly intelligent. They had quickly learned English and were eager to learn about their world's history. Some of them also began calling the ragdolls "stitchpunks", which ended up sticking. They began a tradition of having a nine-day festival the day after the anniversary of when the stitchpunks had defeated the Fabrication Machine.

The festival went like this: every night, they would have a different event. First, a feast, then dancing, then games, then a contest, then a play, then storytelling, then another contest, then a food-gathering contest, then all the events of the previous nights rolled into one (except for the food-gathering).

Ten years after their arrival, the hunans decided to leave so they could explore the world outside the clearing. One of them decided to bring along a book on maladies so that he could assist with taking care of someone if they were sick or if they had a disorder.

The stitchpunks knew that it would be a long time before they saw the hunans again. And it was.

A long, long, LONG time later…

9 looked out toward the factory. He hadn't been in there for a long time. And he wasn't planning on going in anytime soon. 7 came next to his side (by then, she had retrieved and was regularly wearing her bird skull helmet).

She sighed and said, "In just four months, it'll have been 100 years since we beat the Machine."

9 said, "How long had it been before I came?"

"About 50 years, I think."

"It's funny…we hardly look different from when we did 100 years ago."

"It is strange."

Suddenly, 7 got a weird feeling. "9…I feel funny…"

9 got the same feeling. "I do too…"

They both went unconscious and collapsed, with 9 on top of 7.

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9 was the first to wake up. He saw the twins looking at him and 7 with worry in their eyes.

He sat up and somewhat groggily said, "What happened?"

The twins just shrugged. Then they heard 7 groan as she woke up. But instead of getting up or even sitting up, 7 curled up into a ball and wrapped her arms around her abdomen and groaned again. Concerned, the other three went over to her.

9 said, "7, what's wrong?"

7 weakly said, "Remember when I told you about what nausea felt like?"

"Yes…"

"I'm getting it again, and I think it's worse than the first time…" She stopped mid-sentence.

9 gently put his hand on her shoulder as she clutched her abdomen and groaned.

Her nausea went away after a few minutes.

Over the next few days, 9 noticed that 7 was sleeping for longer periods of time than she normally did.

When he brought it up to her, she said, "I've been feeling so tired lately. I don't know why."

7 also had feelings of nausea very often. Again, she didn't know why.

Her exhaustion and nausea continued for a long while. After two months, 7 began to notice something else happening, but she didn't mention it to 9 or the twins. It wasn't obvious, anyway. How could they find out about it?

After another month, her exhaustion was noticeably letting up. Her nausea was also letting up, but not by that much.

At this point, 9 was very concerned about her. He had been concerned about her during the last three months, but the fact that it had continued for so long…well, it didn't seem right. His concern was causing him to be a bit overprotective at times. It had been annoying 7, but while she did notice that it had been annoying her more than it normally would have, a part of her seemed to understand his behavior. She paid more attention to the part that seemed to understand his behavior, though she wished she knew what was happening.

She also noticed that the thing she had detected a month ago had become more obvious to her. It still wasn't visibly obvious, so she still didn't tell 9 or the twins.

Soon, 9 said to her, "I've noticed that you've been putting your hand on your stomach pretty often."

7 said, "I have? Oh, I have." She had her hand over her stomach now. "I-I feel anxious if I don't…"

9 took both of her hands and looked at her with concern. 7 looked down. She felt a little uncomfortable looking directly at his eyes right now.

Suddenly, she winced just a little as, for a moment, she thought she felt something touch her…from the inside.

9 noticed. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing." 7 tore from his hands, suddenly wanting to be alone. When she was, she put her hand over her stomach again, desperately wishing that she knew what was happening.

One month later…

**Author's note: The main story will start in the next chapter. Also, some of you are, at this point, probably able to tell what's happening to 7. I would like to tell all of you that I was NOT planning on having that happen in the story. That is, until I read a fanfic titled Howl… I have long believed that it was impossible for them to reproduce in that manner, but I have thought of a reason that I hope will satisfy both my beliefs and others' beliefs. Also, as for why the voice told them to go to sleep, they went on a sort of adventure that I will not put as part of this story because it'll give away too much, but we'll find out what happened later on. I won't post the next chapter of this story until I get a review or two.**


	3. The hunans and the Cat Beast

7 sat on a rock in the clearing outside the town. It was filled with life. Everywhere, animals scurried, either looking for food or trying to escape a predator. Part of the clearing had even become a forest.

7 thought back to when there was nothing but an empty wasteland for miles. She spotted a deer and its fawn munching on some grass.

7 put her hand over her stomach. Her exhaustion had mostly disappeared, and she hadn't had a bout of nausea for the last three weeks. As a result, 9 had become less overly concerned about her. However, something else had taken their place. The thing that 7 had noticed two months after it had begun had gradually become more obvious. It still wasn't visible, but 7 knew that it wouldn't be for long. One way or another, 9 and the twins would find out.

At first, 7 had thought that it was just a part of her inner mechanics that she was feeling, but she realized that it wasn't when it seemed to be getting bigger. At this point, it was just barely pressing against her skin. 7 had seen some animals with abnormally large abdomens that, after a while, would disappear and the animal would be accompanied by a much smaller, less developed animal.

Suddenly, 7 heard a voice from within the forest yell, "Come on, girl! We're almost there!"

7 knew what it was. It was a hunan. Out of the forest came a horse-drawn caravan, and, sure enough, a male hunan was steering the horse. The man was wearing clothes that made it look like he had just got back from making a building. The caravan was followed by several others.

The first caravan stopped at a place in the clearing where hardly anything had grown. So did the other caravans. 7 noticed that the hunans on the caravans were wearing one of three types of clothing: work clothes, robes, or clothes that looked similar to what the humans had worn.

The hunans unloaded the caravans. Some of them were children who were excited to be in a new place. Suddenly, 7 noticed that a girl wearing work clothes seemed to be looking directly at her. The girl went over to a boy that was also wearing work clothes, and the girl seemed to point to 7. When they started to walk towards her, 7 realized that she had been spotted. She immediately got off the rock and started running towards the library. She was fine with talking to the hunans, but she didn't want to do it alone.

Insert story breaker here

9 wondered where 7 was. He knew that 7 was very independent and it wasn't uncommon for her to go off on her own for a while, but lately she seemed to be doing it for a different reason that she wouldn't admit. He had been glad that 7's nausea had been much less common lately, but still…

He suddenly heard her calling out his name. She was running towards him, looking eager to say something. She seemed to be running at a slower speed than she had used to.

When she got to him, she said, "The hunans. They're back." She was holding her stomach as though she was trying to keep something inside stable. She also seemed to have slight difficulty holding herself up for a few moments.

9 said, "Are you sure they're back?"

At this point, 3 and 4 were watching what was happening.

7 said, "Of course I'm sure. In fact, there are two following me."

They looked to the entrance of the library courtyard to see that only the boy had followed.

7 quietly said, "Well there WERE two."

The four stitchpunks went up to the boy, who bent down so that he could see them better.

The boy said, "Queer things…"

He tried to grab 7, but he took his hand away when she moved back. 7 didn't want the boy to end up saying anything that would tip off 9 or the twins.

The boy said, "I wish you could talk."

9 said, "We CAN talk."

The boy pulled back in surprise. "Er, oh. Uh, hi. My name's Anthony. What's yours?"

"9."

"Your name is a number?"

"Yes."

"That seems a little odd. Are the others' names also numbers?"

"Yes. That's 7, and those two are 3 and 4."

"Are there any more besides these guys?"

"There were, but…"

"But…what?"

"They've been gone for a long time."

Anthony got a somewhat puzzled look on his face.

7 said, "Where's the other girl?"

Anthony said, "Kathleen? Oh, she wanted to check out the giant building on the other side of the town."

"What's Kathleen like?"

"She's the smartest, nicest girl I know. She's really good at repairing stuff, and if she sees anything broken that she can fix, she'll fix it. She's also a really good runner. She can run faster and for longer than anybody else I know. Not even the Pyrins can match her speed."

"The Pyrins?"

"Oh, that's one of the tribes. They're pure evil. They've killed countless members of the other tribes, hoping that one day they'll be able to get rid of them all. They're why we're here. They don't know about this place. I just hope we can STAY safe. They always find us in less than a week. I hope that won't be the case here."

Somebody not too far away yelled, "Anthony!"

Anthony yelled, "Over here, Kathleen!"

The girl came running over to them. The stitchpunks spotted something that made all of them flinch. _Kathleen was holding the remains of the Beast in her hands._

Anthony said, "What's that?"

Kathleen said, "I don't know, but I wanna fix it."

9 quickly said, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Kathleen said, "My passion for fixing things has never caused any problems. Why?"

"When that thing was alive, it hunted us."

"Well there's no guarantee that it'll remember you."

"…I guess not."

"Right. Who are you all?"

Anthony answered that. "Uh, those are 7, 9, 3, and 4."

"What are they?"

9 said, "Stitchpunks."

"What a very interesting name."

9 noticed that Kathleen was giving 7 an oddly warm look.

Kathleen smiled at 7 and said, "Good luck." She then got up and walked away.

Anthony, with a mildly disturbed look on his face, quickly said, "Uh, goodbye." He followed Kathleen out the courtyard.

9 wondered why Kathleen had looked at 7 like that. Sure, 7 had been acting strangely, but she looked fine. At least, he hoped she was.

7 was somewhat glad that Kathleen hadn't said anything too obvious. However, the mere thought of the Beast being brought back to life made her put her hand over her stomach in defense. Then she remembered that the others were watching. She glanced back at them for a moment before running off into the town. 9 was unable to stop her. If the Beast was brought back, the last thing he wanted to happen was for it to encounter 7 alone. After all, 7 was the one to take it down in the end.

9 quickly rushed back into the library, grabbed 7's spear, and ran towards the town. He hoped he could find 7 quickly.

Insert story breaker here

7 sat by herself in an area of the town she hadn't been to very often. She wasn't very comfortable with being alone if the Beast came back, but she just felt like being alone for the moment. She felt quite content, which was rather surprising to her.

Suddenly, she realized that she didn't have her spear. If the Beast came now, she'd be helpless against it (aside from running, of course). She quickly got up and started running towards the library…and quickly had to stop. She had already forgotten that if she ran too fast, her stomach would begin to feel strange and she would have to stop for a few moments.

Just when she was about to resume running, she heard a sound behind her that sent a chill up her spine.

"Oh no…"

Something hit her hard on her back, knocking her to the ground. That same thing pressed down on her back before she could get up. 7 strained to see it. To her horror, it was the Beast. And from the way it growled at her, it could remember her very clearly.

The Beast picked her up and threw her hard onto the wall of a nearby building. 7 gripped her stomach as she got a very uncomfortable feeling there. Her bird skull helmet prevented her from being knocked out. The Beast took it off before throwing her hard again. This time, 7 almost went unconscious. The uncomfortable feeling got worse. 7 knew that if she was knocked out, that would be it for her.

The Beast picked her up again, prepared to throw her against the wall one last time…and stopped. It suddenly put 7 flat on her back on the ground and pressed its hand against her stomach.

As 7 regained her senses, she realized that it had also been able to feel whatever was causing 7's discomfort. After several minutes, the Beast gave her a look as though it wanted to ask what it was feeling.

7 said, "I-I don't know…I wish I did…"

The Beast put its claws at the top of 7's torso, and she quickly realized that it was going to tear her apart to find out what it had felt.

7 shut her eyes…but it didn't come. She opened her eyes in time to see the Beast jump off to the left. From her position, 7 was unable to see what it had seen. She didn't care, though. She went over and picked her helmet up and put it back on. She put her hand over her stomach as relief washed over her like a wave. The uncomfortable feeling became much less prominent.

For several moments, she thought she could hear someone screaming. When she realized that she really was hearing it, she became worried that the Beast had found 9, but she was proven wrong when she heard 9 calling her name from the opposite direction.

9 was relieved to see that 7 appeared to be all right. He had gotten so worried when he heard the Beast roaring.

"7, are you okay?"

7, sounding somewhat tired, said, "The Beast still remembers us. Fortunately, it got distracted by something before I got torn open."

9 helped 7 get up. His instincts had always told him to ensure that 7 stayed alive, but he had noticed that, over the past three months, something had felt…different. He couldn't quite tell what it was.

7 pointed in the direction the Beast had gone. "I heard screaming over there. I wanna see what happened."

They followed the Beast's tracks for several minutes. Fortunately, they did not encounter it. From the tracks, they could tell that it had been chasing something for quite a while. Eventually, they climbed over a pile of rubble to find, to their surprise, 2's body, fully repaired, next to a wall. He looked exactly like he did when he died.

7 said, "How in the world did he get here?"

9 said, "Maybe one of the hunans found him."

"That doesn't explain why his legs are back."

"I know."

They both felt like they knew how, but they couldn't remember.

9 couldn't resist getting one last look at the very first being he had met. 7 stayed where she was. She understood how 9 felt, but she didn't feel like going up to a dead body.

9 knelt next to 2's body. He felt a small joy at seeing 2 again, but it was completely overshadowed by the sorrow that he was dead. 9 gently put his hand on 2's shoulder and looked at 7, who also had a rather sad look on her face. Suddenly, 7's eyes widened and she ran down to them with a look of utter astonishment on her face.

9 had no idea what had caused her to do that…until he saw 2's fingers moving by themselves. 2 groaned and tried to lift himself up, but he wasn't strong enough and so he fell back to the ground. 9 tightened his grip on 2's shoulder to let him know he was there.

2 turned his head so that he could see what was there. When he saw 9, he sighed in relief and said, "I'm so glad it's you…"

9 and 7 were in complete shock. 2 was alive beyond a shadow of a doubt. But how?

7 decided that they should try to find out later. "Come on. Let's get him back to the library. I don't want him to be here when the Beast comes back."

9 and 7 carefully hoisted 2 onto their shoulders and carried him to the library. Along the way, 9 got a glimpse of something that was a shiny bronze.

By the time they got to the library, 2 had the strength and energy to walk again.

The first thing the three stitchpunks saw when they got to the library was Anthony talking to the twins. They couldn't hear what he was saying.

Upon seeing Anthony, 2 said, "Anthony?"

7 said, "You know him?"

"Yes. I met him five months ago."

"He didn't mention that."

Anthony and the twins went up to them. The twins were overjoyed to see him, and 2 was glad to see them.

7 said to Anthony, "You were telling them that you already met 2, weren't you?"

Anthony said, "Yep."

"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?"

"I didn't get a chance to."

"Would 2 understand why Kathleen-."

Anthony quickly interrupted her. "Er, he would. But I'd rather that you guys didn't have any conversations about it."

"Why not?"

"Because it's just so weird." Anthony quickly left.

As 7 explained to the twins what had happened while they were gone, 2 pulled 9 aside and said, "So, how has everything been?"

9 said, "Things have been going pretty good. Well, until four months ago…"

"What happened four months ago?"

"7 and I fainted for no reason and since then, something's been wrong with 7."

"How so?"

"Well, about a week after that, 7 started sleeping a lot and we couldn't tell why."

"How has that been recently?"

"It's gotten a lot better."

"Huh. Anything else?"

"Yes. 7 started getting nauseous a lot."

"Nauseous?"

"Nausea is-."

"I know what nausea is. What I don't get is why she would feel that way. How has it been recently?"

"It's gotten a lot better. She hasn't felt nauseous for three weeks."

"Interesting. Anything else?"

"She's been a little more anxious than usual and she's been putting her hand over her stomach a lot, but other than that, that's it."

"Nothing else?"

"She hasn't told me about anything else."

2 had a puzzled look on his face. "I did not expect you to say that she had nausea."

At this point, 7 and the twins were listening to their conversation.

2 quietly said, "Does this have anything to do with…?"

9 said, "With what?"

"A dream I had last night."

"What was it about?"

After a bit of thought, 2 said, "I was back in my and 5's workshop. 7 was on her knees and had her arms over her stomach and I had my hand on her shoulder and, and you had your arms around her and 1 was there and we were listening to him. At first, I couldn't tell what he was saying; then he said, "There's only one explanation that makes the most sense to me, and even that's ridiculous." 7 said, "And that explanation is…?" I don't remember what 1 said next, but it was shocking. I started to argue with him while you and 7 stayed where you were. Then it ended."

9 wondered if 2's dream had anything to do with his dream, but all he said was, "Hmm."

**Author's note: Didn't expect that, did you? I think that all of you can tell what's happening to 7 at this point. As for 2, well, I'll explain at the end of the story (or maybe earlier). I think there was something else I wanted to say, but I think I forgot.**


	4. Abigail

2 said, "Uh, I know I'm getting off-topic, but what happened to Sanct-?"

7 said, "It burned down."

2, rather surprised, said, "How did that happen?"

9 told him about the machine that had attacked them at the cathedral.

When he was done, 2 said, "Oh… So that's what happened… I had wondered…"

"What?"

"That monstrosity… The one that tried to kill us all… Everything that it could see, I could see."

"Oh."

Kathleen said, "I'm so sorry about what happened to your home."

The stitchpunks turned to the entrance to the courtyard. Kathleen was standing there, having come in time to eavesdrop on the entire conversation.

She said, "I can get the rest of my tribe to rebuild it if you want me to."

7 said, "You have no idea what it looked like. And how are you going to replicate the changes that we made?"

"Could any of you help with that?"

The twins stepped forward. They would be able to show what the building actually looked like. Everybody else stayed where they were.

7 said, "Kathleen, why didn't you tell us that you knew 2 was alive?"

Kathleen, holding the twins in her hand, said, "And spoil the surprise?" She then walked back to the caravans.

When she was gone, 7 said, "2, how did you come back to life?"

2 said, "I…I have no idea."

"What do you remember?"

"I and the other four that were killed were rising into the sky and then we got to the clouds and then…and then…the next thing I can remember was waking up in my body in some sort of tunnel with water in it. I felt better than I had in years. When I was back above ground, I'm not sure what happened, but somehow I started in the town and ended up in the middle of a completely barren wasteland. There was nothing but soil for as far as the horizon. There was no way I could get back."

"Was the ground wet when you got to the town?"

"No. What does that have to do with-?"

"Right after you left, it started to rain and it kept raining until the next morning."

2 had a very puzzled look on his face. "That's strange. It didn't look like it had rained…"

"Anyway, you are aware that the Beast has come back, right?"

"Yes, very aware." He put his hand on the back of his head. It was still somewhat sore there.

7 suddenly said, "So you're the one that saved me."

2 said, "Of course! I wasn't about to let it tear you apart!"

9 had no idea what they were talking about. "What?"

7 said, "The Beast had managed to find me before you did. It tried to kill me by throwing me against a wall several times, but then it decided to kill me by tearing me apart. But I guess 2 was able to get its attention and lead it away from me."

2 said, "Yes, and when it caught me, it nearly killed me."

7 then realized that she had put her hand on her stomach again. She quickly slid it off, hoping the others hadn't noticed. 2 had, but he didn't say anything.

7 said, "Can we go back inside?"

9 nodded and led them inside the library. With the Beast roaming around freely, it wasn't very safe to be out in the open for long.

When they were inside, 7 went somewhere she wouldn't be easily disturbed, sat down, and began to think. The feeling she had gotten when the Beast had pressed on her stomach…if she had her full senses when it happened, she might've been able to tell what exactly it was. Suddenly, she thought she could feel something in her stomach. She put her hand on her stomach and paid close attention. It then stopped, but it had lasted long enough for 7 to feel it. She began to feel almost panicked. Had something been…moving? No, it was impossible. But still, what had been happening to her for the last four months? Her nausea, her exhaustion, the feeling that something was inside and growing: what did it mean? A thought suddenly appeared in her mind, but she quickly dismissed it. There was no way whatsoever that it was possible.

7 then realized that she felt exhausted. She decided that a short rest wouldn't do her much harm. However, she was more tired than she realized. She was soon sleeping very soundly.

9 watched from further away. He had the feeling that 7 had been hiding something that was happening to her. He wished that 7 didn't feel like she had to keep something like that a secret. Of course, considering her personality, it wasn't exactly surprising. Regardless, he couldn't shake the feeling that he knew what was happening in his basic instincts. He just wished that he could tell what it was. All that he could tell was that he had to protect 7 from harm. However, 9 failed to notice the red eye watching them from not too far away…

Insert story breaker here

The Beast was trying to make up its mind. After what it had felt when it pressed against 7's stomach, it had been trying to decide whether it should just wait for something to happen naturally or if it should just rip her open and find out. Either way, it wanted to bring her to the factory so that it could keep a close eye on her. Of course, it would have to wait for the others to be distracted before it could get at her.

9 walked away, still unaware of the Beast nearby.

The Beast walked over to 7 as quietly as possible. 9 was helping 2 with getting a book out of a bookshelf and was unable to hear the creaking of the Beast's joints.

The Beast picked up 7 in its jaws, taking care not to wake her up. She didn't. The beast crept out as quietly as it had entered.

After a few minutes, 9 looked back to where 7 had been. When he saw she was gone, he began to panic.

"Where's 7?"

Insert story breaker here

When 7 woke up, the first thing she was aware of was that uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. She tried to go back to sleep, but then she became aware that she was lying on something different than what she had fallen asleep on. She opened her eyes and saw a pale feather in front of her. She quickly looked around and saw that she was inside a birdcage, the one that the Beast had…

7 instantly realized what had happened. She saw the Beast standing in front of the Fabrication Machine, apparently forlorn that it couldn't do anything about it. It then looked back at her. 7 instinctively put her hand on her stomach. The Beast, realizing she was awake, walked up to her and, when it was three feet away from the cage, lied down and stared at her.

It was several minutes before 7 realized that it was doing that so that she couldn't try to escape and so that it would be hard for the others to try to rescue her (at least, without it knowing).

They stayed like that for hours. Several times, they would hear something and the Beast would look in the direction that the sound had come from, but it stayed right where it was. 7 wished that it would at least look away long enough for her to escape. The uncomfortable feeling briefly came back. It made 7 remember that the Beast hadn't been watching her when she was asleep. She knew how to get it to leave long enough for her to escape.

7 laid down on the bottom of the cage and closed her eyes (though she left one open just a little), making it look as though she was trying to go to sleep. Through her slightly open eye, 7 saw the Beast leave to investigate the source of those sounds. When it was far enough away, 7 got up and, with difficulty, pried open the bars of the cage wide enough for her to fit through. She began running to the pipe leading to the outside of the factory.

Suddenly, 9 came out from behind a piece of rubble. They were relieved to see each other. They ran towards the pipe as quickly as they could. 7 noticed that she was running at a slower speed than normal.

They heard the Beast roar as it discovered that it had been tricked. After a few moments, 7 was grabbed from behind. The Beast, infuriated, threw her onto the ground and pressed down on her stomach hard. 7 felt something else press against her…on the inside.

The Beast gave 9 a look that told him that if he came any closer, it would kill 7.

2, standing on a pipe above the Beast, saw a way to get the Beast off 7. He jumped off the pipe and landed on the Beast's back, with 7's spear in his hand. The Beast, not wanting to get its head sliced off again, reared up to smash 2 against the nearby wall. However, it didn't realize how low the pipe was. As such, it hit its head hard against the pipe and was knocked unconscious. 2 was rather shaken, but was unharmed. 7, on the other hand, didn't exactly seem that way. For starters, she was lying on the ground, curled up tightly, groaning, and had her arms clutching her stomach.

She rather weakly said, "I feel sick…" before passing out.

9 and 2, with some difficulty, were able to get themselves and 7 out of the factory before the Beast woke up.

7 still hadn't woken up when they got back to the library. They laid her down somewhere cozy and waited for her to wake up. 2 decided to keep a look out for anybody coming.

9 quickly became curious about something he had noticed. It seemed rather obvious that 7 had been feeling something in her stomach lately. He wondered if he would be able to feel it as well and, if so, what it felt like. He slid his hand from 7's arm to her stomach and paid close attention to what he felt. Suddenly, he thought he could feel something…moving? He quickly assured himself that he had just imagined it and moved his hand back to her arm. 9 wondered if he should tell 2 about what he felt. 7 then began to wake up.

9 said, "How do you feel?"

7 said, "I think…I think I'm okay now." 9 had an odd look on his face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

9 quickly looked away.

Suddenly, they heard Kathleen yell, "9? 7? You there? We're done with the cathedral!"

Strangely, her voice was coming from the back of the library.

9 said, "You're already done?"

Kathleen came into view. She was holding the twins in her hand. "Yep."

7 said, "That fast?"

Kathleen set the twins down. "Considering that there were about 1,000 people working on it at the same time and all of them highly skilled at constructing, it's not very surprising."

2, who by then had gone over to 9 and 7, said, "How did you get in here?"

"There's a way in through the back."

7 said, "I didn't know there was a back entrance."

"Well, it was pretty well-hidden. I almost didn't see it."

Insert story breaker here

Kathleen said, "Well, whadda ya think?" They were inside the cathedral.

9 said, "It…it looks like…nothing ever happened."

2 said, "There are a few details that aren't the same, but those can be easily fixed."

Kathleen's tribe, the Workens, had truly done an incredible job reconstructing the cathedral.

Suddenly, another girl came rushing into the cathedral.

She said, "Hey Kathleen! Guess what! Abigail just came!"

Everybody turned around. Kathleen's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

The other girl said, "Have I ever lied to you?"

Kathleen rushed out of the cathedral faster than any of them had ever seen anybody run. The other girl quickly picked up the stitchpunks and said, "We won't want to miss this."

The girl was barely able to keep up with Kathleen.

When they got to the hunans' caravans, the first thing the stitchpunks noticed was the crowd of people around a caravan that hadn't been there before.

When Kathleen saw the caravan, she yelled, "Granma! Granma!"

An old woman came out of the crowd and, upon seeing Kathleen, ran to her and hugged her.

Kathleen said, "I missed you so much!"

The girl holding the stitchpunks quietly said, "Abigail is Kathleen's grandmother. The last time we saw her was 8 years ago, before Kathleen's mother, Nancy, was kidnapped by the Pyrins. We never found out what happened to her. All of us believe that Nancy is still alive, either as a slave to the Pyrins or trying to find us somewhere out there. She's a strong woman. She once fought a Pyrin using nothing but her bare hands and won. She also raised her seven children by herself. Kathleen is the youngest. Nancy was carrying her eighth child when she was kidnapped. She kept a lot of things secret but she was so kind. She treated almost everybody as though they were her children. Sorry if I'm telling you too much. I just can't help it."

7 said, "It's perfectly fine."

Abigail had warm, brown eyes and pure white hair. There was a aura of wisdom and love about her that seemed familiar…

A man wearing robes stepped out of the crowd and said, "Greetings, Abigail."

Abigail looked at him and said, "Nolan, when are you going to acknowledge me as your mother?" Her voice sounded soft and sweet.

"I do."

"You never say it."

"I do not have to call you by that to acknowledge you as that."

"Nolan, you've never even said the word "mother" or any variants of it. Ever."

"Does it even matter?"

"It is, at the very least, concerning to me."

Another girl, from behind, grabbed the arm of the girl holding the stitchpunks and said, "Stacy, you've GOTTA check this out!"

The girl took Stacy to a clearing on the other side of the town. About thirty feet away from the nearest building was a large iron statue that looked like a suit of armor.

2 said, "That wasn't there before."

Stacy said, "If that's the case, then how did it get here?"

7 said, "Would you mind putting us down?"

Stacy put down the stitchpunks and said, "Oh. Sorry."

9 noticed a strange marking on the statue's forehead that resembled the Talisman when it was open.

Stacy, also noticing the mark, said, "Wonder what that is."

9 abruptly felt a vibrating sensation from inside him. He knew very well what it was. He opened the zipper that fastened his torso and took out the Talisman. Not only was it vibrating like crazy, but the symbols were glowing. The Talisman suddenly leapt out of his hands and onto the ground. It suddenly opened, and the girls heard it. Its glowing tendrils went for the statue but, instead of attaching to its face, it attached to the marking on its forehead. After a few moments, green cracks started to go down the statue. When the cracks were at its feet, the statue exploded and the Talisman shut off. To the surprise of everybody there, there was a man in the statue's place.

The man fell onto his knees and onto his face. The most bizarre thing about the man was that he looked like he was part dragon in that he had silver scales that covered half his body and wings and claws and his arms seemed like they were coming out of the side of his chest.

Stacy said, "Why do you have wings?"

The man, straining to get up, said, "When I was a young boy, I tried to use an alchemy spell to turn myself into a dragon. It only worked halfway."

7 said, "How long were you in that statue?"

The man, spotting the stitchpunks, was silent for several moments before answering. "About 18 years."

Stacy said, "How in the world were you able to stay alive for so long?"

The man took off something from around his neck. It was a black cord. Hanging from it was a small, orange, glowing crystal.

2 said, "What is that?"

The man said, "Where I come from, it's called a Veridian Crystal." He held it near 2 so that he could hold it, but 7 grabbed it first.

"Why is it glowing?"

"The glow is the power that it is emitting. The amount of power a crystal emits depends on the size of the crystal."

"What gives it its power?"

"I don't know. I've heard a lot of stories, but nobody is sure about any of them."

"Where do the crystals come from?"

"As far as we know, the only place they are found is the Ivanaha Canyons, my former home."

The man then began to roll around in the grass. "This feels fantastic! What is this?"

Stacy said, "It's called grass."

"What is that wondrous smell?"

"What smell?"

"That wind! That wonderful wind! I wonder if my wings work."

The man backed away several feet and started running. He began flapping his large wings. He got off the ground and continued to rise as he flapped his wings.

"It's working! It's working! I can fly!" The man flew over the town and gave a joyful laugh.

They watched him until he had flown somewhere they couldn't see him.

Stacy said, "Let's check on him later."

**Author's note: I'm going to end the chapter here because it's getting a little long. If I'm going too fast, I apologize. I welcome reviews. I would also like it if somebody said something about my bringing 2 back. I will not put up the next chapter until I get at least 1 review for this chapter.**


	5. Keith

Stacy whispered something to the other girl.

The other girl said, "There's no question about it. It's pretty obvious. At first glance, you can't tell, but, you know what I mean."

Stacy said, "Glad you think so too. Most of the time people think I'm just seeing things, like what I saw Nolan doing to Tracy."

9 said, "Who's Tracy?"

"Tracy was Nolan's wife. She and almost all their children were captured by the Pyrins. I once saw Nolan tying Tracy to a tree in the area we were in at the time. That was ten years ago. After the Pyrins raid on our home at the time, I told everybody about what I had seen. Not only did none of the adults believe me, but Nolan had a strong alibi. The only child left is Alice, and Nolan is so strict with her. I can tell that she wants to defy him, but she's too afraid of him to do anything. I wish I could give Nolan what he deserves, but he's a lot stronger than he looks. Plus I'd get in trouble with Gladdys."

2 said, "Alice… I don't think I ever met her."

"Alice is a member of the Hilian tribe. They're the ones that wear the robes."

"Oh."

9 said, "So that's Pyrins, Workens, Hilians, and…who else?"

Stacy said, "The Intells."

The other girl said, "Did you know that Hilians wear skin-tight olive-green garments under their robes so that if they have to take off their robes, they won't be naked?"

9, a little surprised by her sudden comment, said, "Uh, no."

"The garments cover the torso, the shoulders, and half the legs."

Stacy said, "Heather, if you keep blurting out stuff at random, nobody's gonna want to be around you."

Heather said, "Think we should find the guy with the wings before anybody else does?"

"Er, oh, right."

Stacy grabbed the stitchpunks and Heather grabbed the Talisman. 7 was still holding onto the Veridian Crystal.

Insert story breaker here

It took them nearly an hour to find him. By then, the other hunans had long since found him. Fortunately, his child-like nature and handsomeness had endeared them to him. Except Nolan.

When the girls and the stitchpunks found him, Nolan was telling the man, "GET OUT OF HERE, YOU MONSTER!"

"I'm not a monster."

"Then what are you?"

"I'm half-hunan, half-dragon, and the dragon was from an alchemic spell that only worked halfway."

Nolan looked a woman that was next to him. "Alice, tell this thing that it must leave!"

Alice had a dreamy look in her eyes. "But he's so handsome…" The man WAS handsome. His blonde hair was just the right shade and length, and his bright blue eyes were like sapphires. His body was well-proportioned and muscular.

Nolan, angered, gave Alice a hard slap across her face. The man immediately grabbed Nolan's wrists and said, "Hey! Keep your hands off the beautiful lady!"

Nolan said, "You keep your hands off me!" He tried to pull away, but the man had a very strong grip. "Besides, I'm her father."

The man said, "I don't care. I won't let you put your hands on her if you're going to hit her with them."

It was hard to tell, but Alice was blushing. Nobody had ever called her beautiful so openly before.

Nolan said, "Fine. But stay away from my daughter. Or else."

The man said, "Or else what?"

Nolan didn't answer him.

The man let go of Nolan and watched him (Nolan) storm off.

When Nolan was out of sight, Alice went up to the man and said, "Thank you." She then kissed him on the lips. The man blushed.

Alice said, "So, what's your name?"

The man said, "Boris."

"Boris, what tribe are you from?"

"The Pyrins."

The moment he said that, everybody within hearing range froze. 7 dropped the crystal.

A man nearby said, "The…Pyrins?"

Boris said, "Yes. Why?"

"The Pyrins are our sworn enemies."

"What did they do?"

Everybody present described, in excruciating detail, all of the misdeeds and brutalities that the Pyrins had done to them over the years.

When they were done three hours later, Boris said, "Wow… I knew that my tribe had done bad things, but I didn't know they did THAT many."

The other man said, "Boris, how did you get here? Do the other Pyrins know we're here?"

Boris said, "18 years ago, I witnessed some of my tribe torturing some captive children. Before, I had always thought that what my tribe was doing was a glorious thing. It made me realize the truth. Afterwards, I wished that I could be something other than a Pyrin. I was searching through the library one day and found a book on alchemy. One of the spells was transformation for novices. I spent the next several weeks memorizing the spell. When it had been burned into my brain, I followed the instructions to the letter so that I would be turned into a dragon. I had all the right materials, I had practiced the words and rites, and I was ready to go. I chose a dragon so that I would quickly be able to escape afterwards and so that I would look less conspicuous to the guards outside. I'm still not sure what happened, but it only worked halfway. I was spotted soon afterwards. I was able to get outside, but I was captured by the guards. They put me in a hollow iron statue the size of a large man with a few air holes in it and gave me a Veridian Crystal so that I would spend a long time in there without them having to care for me. They also put a Veridian Crystal on the statue's forehead so that it would last forever. I tried to escape for hours, but it was all in vain. I had given up all hope when a woman came and moved the statue I was in outside. She told me to move the statue forward and, if I did so, I would eventually come across a town. She then said, "On the first day, you shall find your salvation and your true love. On the third day, you shall encounter a great power. On the fourth day, you shall begin a great battle both inside and outside. On the eighth day, you shall achieve a form of immortality. On the eighth night, you shall discover your legacy. And on the ninth night, you shall become a hero!" She then bid me farewell and left. I spent the next 18 years slowly moving the statue over here. I was just four years old when I started. I gave up my whole childhood. I did it knowing that it was the only chance I had of escaping. It was a chance well taken. If it wasn't for the ones over there, I never would have gotten out." He motioned towards the girls and the stitchpunks.

Heather said, "Actually, this was the thing that got him out." She held up the Talisman.

Boris quickly went over to get a better look at it. He said, "That thing looks old."

9 said, "It IS old."

Boris said, "May I borrow it for a while?"

9 hadn't expected him to ask that.

Boris picked his Veridian Crystal off the ground. "I'll take that as a no."

Alice went up to him and said, "Boris, would you mind, um…" She then whispered something to him.

Boris, with an odd expression on his face, said, "There's not much point in doing it, but okay."

Alice led him to one of the caravans and they went inside.

2 said, "Would you mind putting us down?"

Stacy carefully dropped them and walked away.

When she was gone, Heather bent down, handed the Talisman back to 9 and said, "Sorry about Stacy. Her parents were killed by the Pyrins when she was young and she has a very hard time forgiving others. I'd recommend just trying to stay away from her for the next few hours." Heather walked back towards the caravans.

9 looked at the sky. The sun was setting.

Abigail, who was nearby, said, "Such a shame… Nancy took care of her after her parents died. Nancy tried so hard to open Stacy to the thought that not all the Pyrins were bad. After Nancy was kidnapped, Stacy became deeply hateful of the Pyrins; I don't think it's possible to convince her otherwise."

Abigail sighed.

"Nancy… Nancy was so kind and loving. She was the perfect mother. I am so proud to have had her as my daughter. She was very secretive, even as a young child, but it just made her all the more trustworthy. I wish I knew what became of her. I can hardly stand it. Oh Nancy…why am I thinking about you so much right now?"

Insert story breaker here

That night, 7 couldn't fall asleep. Her turmoil of thoughts kept her awake. 2 had come back, alive and in good health. But how? And what about the others? Had they also been revived? If so, where were they?

Suddenly, 7 heard screaming not very far away. She looked around the ground floor of the cathedral. Since 8 was basically the only one that had been strong enough to raise the bucket with them in it (and since he wasn't with them), the five stitchpunks couldn't get to the part of the cathedral they had really lived in.

The screaming came again, and this time, it was close enough to wake up the rest of the stitchpunks, and it was definitely coming from outside. The stitchpunks ran outside to find…a woman with black hair and green eyes beating Nolan with a wooden bat that seemed to have brown and red paint on it. And she was beating him hard. So hard, in fact, when 2 saw it, he ensured that the twins didn't get much of a look (they were still like young children, after all).

Nolan was desperately trying to get away, but the woman was far too aggressive. Soon, it got to the point where 9 couldn't stand to watch anymore. At that point, the woman began hitting Nolan on the head.

She hadn't been able to do that for long before somebody yelled, "STOP!"

The woman stopped and looked behind her. The stitchpunks looked as well. Standing several feet away from the woman was a man that, like Boris, had blonde hair and blue eyes.

The woman said, "Well hello Keith."

Keith said, "Get away from the man, Pleather."

With an amused smile on her face, Pleather backed away several feet from Nolan. Keith picked up Nolan and went off in the apparent direction of the caravans. Pleather, still smiling, stayed right where she was. After thirty minutes, though, her smile went away and she headed off in the direction Keith had gone. The stitchpunks, curious as to what was going to happen, followed. Or at least tried to. Due to their size, they weren't able to keep up with Pleather. However, it wasn't very long before both Pleather and Keith suddenly appeared from between two buildings. Keith had unsheathed two identical swords from his back and was glaring very hatefully at Pleather. For the first time, 9 noticed that Keith had a fairly large bag slung over his shoulder.

Pleather said, "Keith, you know that we don't have to fight. I just want one little thing from you. You know what it is."

"Considering that you took away the people most important to me, you're an idiot for thinking that I'd even consider it," Keith snarled. "I will admit, though, you're extremely persistent."

"Thank you."

Keith's eyes narrowed and he lunged at her with his swords. She gracefully twirled out of the way and swatted him on the back with her bat. The stitchpunks hid behind some rubble to avoid getting stepped on. The rest of the battle followed this formula: Keith tries to attack Pleather, Pleather practically dances out of the way, Pleather hits Keith with her bat on a random location on his body (excluding his head and groin). Said formula repeated exactly 84 times before Keith was apparently too sore to continue.

When she realized that, Pleather said, "Give up, Keith. You can't beat me."

Keith said, "Wanna bet?"

He quickly swung one of his swords in front of her stomach. A small spray followed Keith's sword as it moved away from her. Since Pleather's back was to the stitchpunks, they couldn't see what Keith had done to her.

Pleather immediately put her arms to her stomach and ran off as fast as she could.

Keith sheathed his swords…and finally noticed the crowd of people watching him from behind the buildings.

Keith said, "Were you watching us the whole time?"

Everybody nodded in unison.

Keith's cheeks became slightly redder as Boris walked up to him and said, "Who was that?"

Keith said, "That was Pleather, a defector."

"A what?"

"People from other tribes that begin serving the Pyrins as spies or scouts are referred to as defectors. Pleather's been a defector since before I met her. She's been following me since I left the Pyrins 25 years ago."

"What happened 25 years ago?"

"I already told you: I'd rather not talk about it. Why are you asking me this again?"

"So they know."

Keith looked confused. "'They' being who?"

Boris pointed to the stitchpunks.

When Keith saw them, his confused expression became even more so. He walked up to them, still looking baffled. The stitchpunks and Keith stared at each other for several minutes.

Finally, Keith very quietly said, "That's funny… I didn't think there were more…"

9 didn't say anything.

There was a look of disbelief on Keith's face.

**Author's note: I think I should tell you what the various tribes look like. The Workens tend to wear clothing that is suitable for doing hard labor in and, since they spend long amounts of time in the sun, they usually have the darkest skin color out of all the tribes and are often the strongest. Genetic disorders tend to be more common in the Worken tribe than the other tribes. Their population is at about 1,500.**

**The Hilians wear robes (the color depends on the person's taste) and, as Heather said, wear skin-tight, olive-green garments made of artificial fibers that cover their whole torso and part of their limbs. They are usually the most peaceful of the tribes and are the most likely to have an intertribal relationship. Their skin is darker than the other tribes, but not nearly as dark as the Worken tribe. Unlike the rest of the tribes, they never wear shoes (it is considered a sin. They don't know why). As children are often seen as sacred in their culture, couples almost always have several children (the average is 4). Because of this, their population is at about 2,500.**

**The Intells wear the same clothing as the humans did before the Fabrication Machine came into existence. They are considered the most intelligent of the tribes, hence their name. They are also the only tribe whose members have last names. They used to be the least populous of the tribe, at 1,000, due to Pyrin raids and the common practice of having only one child per couple. However, due to an abundance of food and increased intertribal relationships over the last 20 years, their population has risen dramatically, now at about 2,000.**

**The Pyrins wear light armor and always have a weapon with them, even children in training. They are the most brutal and warlike of the tribes, and are responsible for many of the bad events that happened to the other tribes. This had led to the Pyrins being prejudiced against by several people (although they always have a pretty good reason for this). They often enslave members of other tribes captured in raids or encountered by scouts, although just killing them on sight is almost as common. Slaves are often forced to do extremely laborious tasks in place of the Pyrins, but they are not just labor slaves. Hilian men and women are often seen as the most attractive and, more often than not, become sex slaves for single Pyrins. This practice is what keeps the number of slaves at what it is, as children born from this that do not have blonde hair and blue eyes (or do not accept the ways of the Pyrins) are forced to become slaves. Ironically, it is rumored that the leader of the Pyrins does not have either of these traits, but nobody knows for sure as nobody has ever seen his face (this is due to the fact that not only does he wear a suit of armor made entirely out of Veridian Crystals, but he wears a metal helmet underneath this armor that covers most of his face, although there are rumors that he once took off his helmet when his son was born so that they could get a good look at each other). It is unknown what their population is, but it is estimated to be at 5,000. (Note: the previous information came courtesy of Keith.)**

**I think that I should stop at this point. Maybe I'll explain more about intertribal relationships in another chapter.**


	6. The discovery

Keith shook his head as if to clear it.

"Anyway," he said. "I wanna check out that big building over there."

He set off towards the factory.

After several moments, everybody headed off towards the caravans, leaving the stitchpunks by themselves.

9 looked up at the sky and noticed that it seemed to be at about the same time of day as when 8 had been killed. He didn't know why he seemed to be paying attention to details like that at that moment.

They all suddenly heard somebody yelling. The voice sounded very familiar.

The Beast suddenly came rushing by them. Moments later, a canine (they couldn't tell if it was a wolf or a dog) came, running in the same direction. The very first thing the stitchpunks noticed about it was that 8 was riding on its back. However, he failed to notice the others.

To the Beast, he said, "YEAH! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?"

7 yelled, "Hey 8! Wait!"

He didn't hear her.

When he was out of sight, 7 said, "At this rate, if all of the others turn out to be alive, I won't be very surprised."

9's eyes lit up (figuratively) when she said that. If all of the others were alive, then the next one to come should be…

Insert story breaker here

9 eagerly searched the town for 5. Anthony had agreed to help him.

Along the way, Anthony couldn't help telling 9 more about Nancy.

"Sometimes, I'd hear her talking to somebody in her caravan, but she always spoke too softly for me to hear her. Once, she caught me doing that. She had also been taking a bath when she saw me. I can still remember it like it just happened." He sighed. "I once asked Abigail why she had given Nancy that name. Turned out that Abigail had named Nancy after her fraternal twin sister. She had died saving her, but she never said from what."

9 was not paying much attention.

"By the way, the reason I keep talking is so that 5 will, hopefully, hear us and be drawn in our direction."

9 said, "Good idea."

Anthony, lowering his voice, said, "9, when we finished rebuilding the cathedral, I asked the twins if there had been others and, if so, what they were like."

9 turned around and looked directly into Anthony's eyes.

Anthony continued. "I admit, I was a little surprised at how quickly you had bonded with 5, but when I began to see what his personality was like, I understood. He seems like a really nice guy."

9, a bit somberly, said, "He was."

Anthony said, "You mean 'is'."

9 couldn't help but smile.

"Er, by the way, how's 7 doing?"

"She's doing fine."

"You're probably going to wonder why I'm asking this, but has she been unusually tired or nauseous at all in the recent past?"

9 got an odd look on his face. "Yes…"

"When did it start?"

"Four months ago…"

"And you still don't know what's going on?"

"I don't think so…"

Anthony sat back on his heels. "Hoo boy…"

"What?"

"Well, you would've found out eventually, but considering Kathleen's abilities, a few discussions I've had with the other kids, my own observations, and your confirmation of 7's symptoms… Well, there's only one explanation that makes the most sense to me, and even that's ridiculous."

"And that explanation is…?"

"7 is…"

Before he could finish his sentence, they both heard somebody very nearby scream.

9 recognized the voice instantly. "5."

Both of them immediately ran in the direction of the voice. They turned a corner to find, several feet away, the Beast cornering 5 against a wall, and 5 was both terrified and horrified.

Anthony quickly made a decision…and charged forward.

"YAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGG!"

Upon seeing him, the Beast bolted. Anthony continued to chase it.

5 was overcome with relief. He had been so sure that the Beast was going to kill him.

"5!"

5 looked. It was 9. They both ran towards each other and hugged each other. They were both overcome with joy, especially 9. 5 had been like a brother to him, and it had been so painful having to watch… But now he was back, and he looked like he did just before he had been killed.

Neither of them said anything. After a minute, they broke the hug.

5 looked back in the direction the Beast had gone. "Uh, didn't 7 kill that thing?"

9 said, "She did."

"Then how did…?"

"I'll explain later. Let's get back to the others."

From behind them, a rather meek voice said, "Uh, can…can I come with you?"

It was 6. He had his key, and his body was even more ink-stained than the last time 9 had seen him. He also had a bag slung around his shoulder that had several rolled-up pieces of paper in it.

9 said, "Of course."

6 eagerly ran up to him. He said, "You found the source."

9 nodded and took them to find the others. They found 7 and the twins in front of the cathedral.

Upon seeing 5 and 6, 7 said, "What did I tell you?"

The twins excitedly ran up to them, overjoyed.

5 stared at the cathedral in surprise. He said, "How did-?"

9 said, "It was rebuilt."

"Oh."

Suddenly, a voice yelled out, "HEY! GET BACK HERE, YOU THIEF!"

They turned around to find Anthony riding Boris (who was noticeably more dragon-like) who was chasing the Beast. The Beast had Boris' Veridian Crystal in its mouth.

A wolf suddenly jumped in front of the Beast. 8 was on its back. With nowhere else to go, the Beast began running towards the other stitchpunks. Halfway to them, it suddenly turned around and ran around Boris and the wolf. It disappeared through a hole in the wall of a building that was too small for Boris or the wolf to go through (the hole, not the building).

Boris said, "Well, that's a rather anticlimactic end to a chase."

Anthony said, "How is that anticlimactic?"

As Boris began to have a rather pointless argument with Anthony, 8 finally noticed the other stitchpunks. When he noticed 5 and 6, he got a very confused look on his face.

Suddenly, Kathleen came out of the cathedral. She said, "You guys might want to see this."

Insert story breaker here

The stitchpunks were silent.

Boris said, "Well, this is a first."

The entire ground floor of the cathedral was almost completely covered with animals, from owls and dragons and giant cobras (cobras the size of anacondas) and regular snakes and other egg-laying animals with their eggs to heavily pregnant wolves, cats, rabbits, rats, mice, a few horses, and other mammals (insects were also there). On the plane stuck in the ceiling was a single dragon that had shiny, bronze scales. It watched the activities of the hunans that had come to study the animals.

Anthony said, "What are they all doing here?"

One of the hunans among the animals said, "That's what we're trying to figure out!"

6 rather quietly said, "They're waiting, waiting for someone to come, and they want to ensure that she comes safely."

Anthony said, "How do you know?"

"I…I can feel it."

Boris said, "I can feel it too."

Another hunan among the animals said, "How do you know that whoever they're waiting for is female?"

"I can feel it."

"Would you mind describing what you feel?"

Boris did his best to describe it, but he had a lot of difficulty finding the right words. 9 took the opportunity to get a better look at Boris.

At this point, the only part of Boris that resembled his original form was his head, and even that had dragon-like traits on it. At the rate he was going, he wasn't going to be a hunan for much longer.

6 had already found a relatively isolated area and was working on one of his drawings. Curious, 9 went over to him. The drawing 6 was working on looked like the Fabrication Machine. 9 glanced at the other rolled-up pieces in 6's bag.

6 quietly said, "You can look at them."

The first drawing was, of course, of the Talisman. The second drawing seemed to be of a very large woman wearing robes that completely covered her torso. The creepiest part was that the woman seemed to have large tentacles. The third drawing seemed to be of a dragon, but it looked a little weird. The fourth drawing appeared to be of a scorpion, but its stinger looked different. The fifth drawing was of Boris when he was half-man, half-dragon, but he looked considerably younger. The sixth one was of a circle surrounded by several other, much smaller shapes. The seventh one seemed to be of the sun, drawn the way a young child would. The eighth one was of, as far as 9 could tell, a snake.

9 didn't see any more drawings in the bag. He looked back at 6, who had just finished his drawing of the Fabrication Machine. 6 went back to his bag and pulled out two pieces of paper, one of which was rolled-up. He handed the rolled-up piece of paper to 9 and started drawing on the other piece.

9 unrolled the piece of paper…and his expression immediately changed to a confused one. He REALLY couldn't tell what it was.

Keith, who had been trying to figure out why the animals were there, noticed the stitchpunks and walked towards them, taking care not to step on any animals.

When he noticed 8, 5, and 6, he said, "Well, I see that the others are alive."

He looked back at the throng of animals and said, "I swear, this is the most unusual animal behavior I've ever seen. Never seen them so crowded, either. I spent an hour trying to find 2 in there!"

Almost immediately after he said that, 5 ran into the crowd of animals.

Keith said, "What's with him?"

7 said, "He was very close to 2."

"Ah."

8 noticed his wolf among the animals and went over to it. Boris and Kathleen left. Anthony sat down on a bench that had enough room for him to sit on (some of the birds had made their nests on the benches due to a lack of space elsewhere).

Keith went over to 9 and 6 and, upon noticing the drawing 9 was holding, said, "What's that?"

9 said, "I have no idea."

Keith took the drawing and said, "Hey, uh, 6, what's this suppose to be?"

6 looked at him and said, "I don't know. I drew it four months ago and I'm still trying to figure it out."

Keith carefully examined the drawing. He kept thinking about things that could resemble it.

After several minutes, his eyes widened and he said, "6… I think this drawing is of a fetus."

6 had never heard that word before. "A what?"

Keith gave the drawing back to 9 as he (Keith) quietly explained to 6 what a fetus was.

As 9 more closely examined the drawing, he quickly realized that it was indeed a fetus. He suddenly remembered a book about pregnancy that he had found and read in the library a year ago. He had completely forgotten about it. He gave a slight smile as he remembered thinking, more than once, what it would be like if 7 was…

Suddenly, he almost felt a slight twang in his mind as he realized that what had been happening to 7 over the last four months very closely matched the symptoms commonly experienced during the first four months of pregnancy…

Keith stopped when he saw 9's expression. He cupped his hand around 9 to support him. 9 leaned on Keith's hand as his realization slowly sank in.

Anthony, who had been watching, quietly said, "Finally."

Keith grabbed the drawing and took a much closer look at it. It took him only a few moments to figure it out. 6 didn't quite understand what was happening.

Keith said, "Well, that's quite a twist."

When 9 got over it, 6 said, "1's still out there… Find him and bring him here."

9 quickly left the cathedral. He wanted to find 1, and he needed a chance to be alone. He almost felt stupid for not realizing what was wrong with 7 earlier. Of course, it was quite reasonable since, 1, they were automatons and automatons could not reproduce in that manner unless they were designed to, 2, the stitchpunks were not designed to reproduce in that manner and, 3, even if they were, when he and 7 had fainted for no reason (no doubt the day that it had begun), they weren't in the right position. 7 had been face-down on the ground and 9 had been lying face-up on her back.

9 shook his head. While it was likely a good idea to, he wouldn't tell the others just yet. They would undoubtedly want some form of explanation, and he didn't have one.

Right now, though, he just wanted to find 1. He had to before the Beast did.

9 was very certain of one thing. He wanted to ensure that 7 stayed safe.

**Author's note: I think I wanted to say something, but I don't remember what I wanted to say. Oh yes. The dragons. The dragons in this story are just large enough to carry one normal adult hunan on their back, but, unlike their mythical counterparts, they do not have the ability to breathe fire. They do, however, have very deadly venom. Also, I would like to say that a motto for me would probably be "The best stories are often the ones that are well-thought out." I'll explain this at the end of the story. If you still can't tell what's wrong with 7, you either seriously need help or know absolutely nothing about the reproductive system. Either way, it'll be explicitly (is that the right word?) stated in a few chapters. (I put that in to be funny, just so you know.)**


	7. The birth of animals

9 tried to concentrate on finding 1, but his turmoil of thoughts kept him from fully focusing on it.

Suddenly, he tripped over a rock.

Hearing his yell, a voice called out, "Hello? Is somebody there?"

9 recognized the voice in moments. It was 1.

"1! I'm over here!"

"9? Is that you? Hold on."

1 came out from under some rubble. He looked both frantic and relieved.

"9! The Beast! It's back!"

9 said, "I know." He explained to 1 about how it had been brought back. When he finished, 1 was considerably calmer.

"Oh… For a while, I was very worried that…you-know-what had come back. Speaking of which, do you still have the Talisman?"

9 opened his zipper and took out the Talisman.

1 said, "Good. Let's get out of here. I don't want to be around when it comes back."

Fortunately, the cathedral wasn't far away at all.

When 1 saw it, he said, "What the-?"

9 said, "It was rebuilt."

"By who?"

"The Worken tribe."

"The what?"

"Nevermind."

When they went inside and 1 saw all those animals, he was speechless.

Suddenly, Anthony (who had moved to the entrance of the building) said, "Well, that didn't take you very long."

After briefly examining 1, Anthony said, "The others are somewhere among the animals."

1 said, "Even 8?"

"Yes."

1 immediately dashed into the crowd. 9 began to follow him, but Anthony stopped him.

"So," he said when 1 was out of hearing range. "You finally figured it out."

9 nodded.

"You feel a little stupid for not realizing earlier, don't you?"

"Admittedly, yes."

"Are you going to tell the others?"

"Not yet."

"Why not?"

"I think it would be a better idea for them to see 7's symptoms first, then tell them."

"…That does seem like a better idea. Just don't wait too long."

"I think they'll realize something's-."

"I meant when it becomes obvious."

"…"

In a much quieter voice, Anthony said, "9, you are aware that, in humans, pregnancy is not visibly obvious until the second trimester, right?"

"Of course. But that's not until later on."

"You guys are a lot smaller than humans. It could mean that 7's pregnancy might become obvious a little sooner."

"…"

"From your silence, I'm guessing that that didn't occur to you."

9 shook his head.

Anthony said, "If you would like me to be the one to explain it to them, I would be glad to."

9 then noticed an insect the size of his hand on Anthony's arm.

When Anthony noticed, he said, "Ooo! An annodite!"

"A what?"

"Annodites are the most remarkable creatures I know of. Their bodies are incredibly efficient and they can eat just about anything you can think of. They've also shown signs of high intelligence on more than one occasion. They're also incredibly resilient. I've seen a few people that are afraid of bugs try to kill them by squashing them. It never worked. They also aren't affected by digestive acids. I'd tell you how we found that out, but now's not the right place."

The annodite on his arm flew away.

Suddenly, a loud and high-pitched scream rang through the cathedral. Anthony and 9 saw 1 running towards them at a faster speed than 9 thought he could run. He was being chased by a rather large insect.

1 climbed up to Anthony's shoulder. Upon seeing 9, the insect went up to him, looking very excited. It was the size of Anthony's hand.

1 said, "WHAT IS THAT THING?"

Anthony calmly said, "First of all, please don't yell right in my ear. That thing is an annodite queen. From the looks of it, it's infertile."

The queen made a pleasant trilling sound as it snuggled against 9.

Anthony said, "Why is that thing so happy to see you?"

9, who was baffled, said, "I have no idea…"

"By the way, 9, I've been meaning to ask you about the mechanical cat thing… What exactly is it?"

9 told him everything he knew about the Beast and what it had done. 1 helped him.

When 9 was done explaining, Anthony and the annodite queen looked mildly horrified.

Anthony said, "What in the world made that thing?"

9 told him everything he knew about the Fabrication Machine and what it had done to them.

When he was done, Anthony was even more horrified.

He said, "Wow…that's scary."

The annodite queen looked mortified.

Anthony took 1 off his shoulder and said, "Um, I just remembered. I have a few things I need to do, so bye!" He quickly took off.

1 said, "I wonder where he's really going…"

He looked at 9 and, motioning to the crowd of animals, said, "Shall we?"

The stitchpunks spent the rest of the day among the animals. Anthony, Kathleen, and Boris didn't come back. Keith had left before 9 and 1 came back.

9 asked the remaining stitchpunks if they knew how they had come back. None of them had any idea. All they knew was that seemingly immediately after they had passed on, they had been revived in the same places they had died and, immediately afterwards, they lost all sense of direction until they were a very long distance away from the town.

When the sun went down, the stitchpunks went to the part of the cathedral that they had lived in. They found it to be almost exactly as it had been.

6 immediately went over to the area that had been his and set up his possessions.

1 took 9 to an area that was a bit more isolated from the others.

He quietly said, "9, did you notice that 7 seemed to be acting a bit…odd today?"

9 said, "Yes."

"You are aware of what's happening, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'd have been concerned if you weren't."

9 immediately realized that 1 had figured it out.

9 quietly said, "You haven't told the others, have you?"

A mischievous smile appeared on 1's face. "Oh, no, 9. I intend to leave that to you."

1 then left. 9 became a bit nervous. Apparently, 1 had figured out that 9 was going to have a hard time explaining it to the others.

Anyway, 5 eagerly helped 9 set up a room for him (9). It was very close to 7's. They finished in about half an hour.

When 9 went to bed thirty minutes later, the only thing on his mind was what was happening to 7. He would definitely have to tell her first. It would be unfair otherwise. It was affecting her the most…

9 immediately remembered the voice from 100 years ago. It had told them that they had made a promise to someone, and it was going to affect 7 the most. What was happening to 7 now almost certainly had something to do with that promise, but that didn't explain how it was possible. 9 suddenly became very drowsy and fell asleep, still thinking about 7…

Insert story breaker here

7 sat up on her bed. She had only gotten four hours of sleep and she was tired, but her turmoil of thoughts had kept her awake. That, and her realization of what had been happening to her. She almost felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. Of course, since she hadn't been designed to be able to do that, it wasn't surprising. She had been unable to keep herself from wondering how the Scientist would react if he somehow found out. She wondered how 9 would react.

7 knew that the Beast was as determined as ever to revive its creator, and it needed the Talisman to do that. It would stop at nothing to get it. It had to be eliminated before somebody was seriously hurt.

7 had decided that she would be the one to get rid of it, and she would do it today. She knew that it was dangerous both for her and the very thing she was trying to protect, but it would have to be worth the risk. After all, if nothing was done, and if the Fabrication Machine came back…

7 tried to avoid thinking about it. All she had to do was kill the Beast and that would be the end of their immediate problems. She knew she was capable of doing it. She had trained herself over the past 100 years, ensuring that she wasn't out of practice.

As 7 looked down at herself, she couldn't resist giving a slight smile. She very well knew that it was extremely unnatural, but she hardly cared. Anthony would surely help her with explaining some parts to the others. She decided to get some sleep before heading off. It would do her some good.

She felt a soft, fluttering sensation in her stomach as she settled down. It strengthened 7's determination to ensure its survival…even if that meant having to endanger it at times (though she wished she didn't have to).

Insert story breaker here

The thing that woke 9 up was the sound of countless animals calling out in a way that almost sounded like singing. It was so loud, it woke up all of the stitchpunks. In fact, it could be heard as far as the caravans (though it was very difficult to hear it from there and you would have to be outside to hear it at all).

1 was annoyed at having been woken up earlier than he would have liked, but considering that he had been having a nightmare, he didn't mind very much. He got off his throne (he used it as a bed because it was the only thing he had ever used as such) and waited for the others to come.

8, grouchy, came into the room and said, "What's with that racket?"

1 said, "Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

8 glared at him.

The rest of the stitchpunks came into the room, all wondering why the animals were being so noisy. Then they noticed that the bucket they used as an elevator wasn't where they had left it.

They looked down the shaft. 2 was surprised to see Anthony, wearing blue overalls with several pockets, climbing up the shaft.

When he reached the top, he said, "Would you like me to take you guys down?"

2 said, "I thought you were afraid of heights, Anthony."

Anthony looked down the shaft. After several moments, he said, "I keep forgetting that."

Looking back at them, he said, "Wait a minute. Where's 7?"

The stitchpunks looked around to find that, indeed, 7 was not among them.

Anthony said, "That's weird. If she's not with you guys and she's not with the animals and she left before sunrise…where is she?"

1 said, "How do you know that 7 left before sunrise?"

"Alice came here shortly before sunrise so that she could see the animals."

"Who's Alice?"

"Let me take you guys to the ground and you'll see."

The stitchpunks allowed Anthony to put them into his pockets one by one. When Anthony began climbing down the shaft, 9 noticed that he was going at an unnecessarily slow pace. When they got to the bottom 10 minutes later and Anthony had taken them out of his pockets, the stitchpunks immediately realized that something had happened. For starters, the bronze dragon was no longer watching from the plane and the hunans seemed more frantic.

The stitchpunks saw why when they were among the animals: all of the female mammalian animals had given birth and all of the eggs of the reptiles, birds, and insects had hatched.

An Intell man wearing glasses said, "This is the largest mass birthing I've ever seen!"

Somebody else said, "This is the ONLY mass birthing you've ever seen!"

9, who had been staring at the plethora of animals, was startled to see the bronze dragon directly next to him. The dragon looked at him, apparently curious. It had soft and warm brown eyes that made 9 feel quite calm. Its scales looked like clean, polished bronze. The dragon had a rope around its neck that had a Veridian Crystal ¾ the size of Boris' hanging from it.

The dragon sniffed him and even licked him (the dragon did not like how 9 tasted).

They then heard Boris say, "What's the matter, Sparrow? Never seen an automaton before?" It was coming from behind Anthony.

The dragon made a sound that seemed like barking.

Boris said, "What kind have you seen?"

9 looked back to find another dragon a few feet behind Anthony that had blue-grey scales: the same color as the scales that Boris had had the day before.

Anthony, upon seeing him, said, "Boris? You're-?"

"Completely dragon now. It's great. All of my senses are greatly heightened and, the best part is, I can understand animals."

Anthony said, "So you could be a translator for us."

Boris nodded.

1 said, "What-?"

Anthony said, "Boris used to be a hunan, but he used an alchemic spell to turn himself into a dragon when he was young."

1 said, "Is that so?"

Boris said, "Yes, unfortunately, it only worked halfway. I ended up being imprisoned in an inescapable and very heavy iron suit. I was freed by 9's little trinket."

"Were you a Pyrin?"

"…Yes."

"How in the world did you get a very heavy iron suit with you in it from the depths of the Ivanaha Canyons to here?"

"It took me 18 years. And I started just outside the Ivanaha Canyons because a woman carried me there. Took her a while."

"How old were you when you started?"

"4 years old."

It suddenly became very quiet.

1 said, "4 years old?"

Boris said, "Yes. I-."

1 crossed his arms, got a skeptical look on his face and said, "I find that very hard to believe."

Even the bronze dragon had a skeptical look on its face.

Boris said, "Would you believe a few days away from being 5 years old?"

"I don't think so."

Boris was silent for several moments before saying, "How about a week after my 10th birthday?"

"That I'll believe."

"Good, because that's the true one."

Anthony said, "Boris…"

Boris said, "Fine, I admit it, I lied about a few things. I performed the spell a week after my 10th birthday because my mother told me to do it, although I had considered it for a long time. Also, my mother was the one to carry me out."

Somebody among the animals said, "What about those predictions?"

"My mother said all of them except the last one."

1 said, "What predictions?"

"Before my mother left me to try to escape, she told me that, if I moved the statue forward, I would eventually come across a town and that, and I quote, 'On the first day, you shall find your salvation and your true love. On the third day, you shall encounter a great power. On the fourth day, you shall begin a great battle both inside and outside. On the eighth day, you shall achieve a form of immortality. And on the eighth night, you shall discover your legacy.' So far, I only understand the first one."

Alice, who had moved much closer, said, "Why did you lie to us?"

"I-I don't know, I just-." Boris sighed. "Look. It's not important. What's important is that-." He suddenly froze. His expression almost made it seem like he was possessed.

Anthony, seeing the opportunity, knelt down and quietly said, "Hey 9. I didn't get a chance yesterday, but here." He reached into one of his pockets and took out 9's light staff. Or at least a replica of it. He quickly showed 9 that it worked and handed it to him.

9 was very surprised. The only difference between this one and the old one was that this one looked much cleaner.

Before he could say anything, however, Boris ominously said, "7 is in danger."

He quickly grabbed 9, put him on his back, and dashed towards the entrance at full speed.

Everybody stared after them.

Anthony looked through the hole in the ceiling and thought, _It's pretty cloudy out… I wonder if it means something..._

**Author's note: For those of you who have read my previous stories (although I seriously doubt most of you have), Sparrow is an OC from a few of them. He'll play a somewhat larger part much later on in the story. Also, you may want to reread chapter 2. I have made a small, but very important change.**

**For those of you that can, you better start reviewing. Otherwise, something bad is going to happen in the story…and I mean that. (Yes, I'm a bit desperate for reviews, but considering how most of my other stories have fared, that's not surprising.)**


	8. Discovering

7's search of the Beast was surprisingly unsuccessful. She had looked through the entire town without sensing any sign of it. The only thing in the factory was a dead (or at least, inactive) Fabrication Machine.

7, looking up at the cloud-covered sky, was rather surprised that it was so cloudy. It was rarely so cloudy in the middle of summer. The day the hunans had come back, there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. The day after that, the sky was semi-cloudy. 7 had felt increasingly anxious as the days went by, as well. She just hoped that the clouds meant it was going to rain, and that her anxiety was because of her…condition.

Presently, 7 was sitting on a piece of rubble, taking a short break to think about what to do next. She had her hand on her stomach. She had entertained herself several times thinking about how the others would react when they found out. She and 9 would, of course, have to explain what had happened 100 years ago when the ghost of the Fabrication Machine attacked them in an attempt for revenge and explain to their best about the mysterious voice that had helped them. She still wondered what that voice had belonged to.

Speaking of the Fabrication Machine, 7 was very glad that it wasn't functioning, and it was very unlikely that it would be any time soon. The Beast was still trying to get the Talisman, but 7 highly doubted that it knew where it was, and even if it did, it would have a hard time getting it (well, as long as 9 was careful, but they had help).

7 decided to head back to the cathedral. She had only gone a few feet when she heard a growling sound from behind her. She had no time to react before the Beast began attacking her.

Insert story breaker here

9 clung to Boris with one hand and his light staff with the other as Boris frantically searched the ruins of the town for any sign of 7. He even searched the factory. There was no sign of 7 anywhere.

Finally, after several hours of searching, Boris searched in the last possible place: an old house that was almost completely intact on the outside, but a complete wreck on the inside. There were holes in the floor and collapsed wooden beams that led to other floors and created several small holes. It was the perfect place to hide.

When Boris went through a small hole, 9 was forced off. He was a little surprised at how determined Boris was to find 7. And what made him think that 7 was in danger?

Of course, 9 was very concerned about 7, but Boris seemed to be even more concerned.

9 hoped that the Beast wasn't hiding in the building. If 7 had gone in here and the Beast had also been in here, it could've easily ambushed her, and…

9 did his best not to think about it. If the Beast was in here now, at least 9 had his light staff. He still wasn't sure why, but the Beast was repelled by it. As long as he had the staff and Boris was nearby, the Beast hopefully wouldn't attack him.

9 heard creaking behind him. When he didn't see anything, he turned on his light staff and cautiously walked in the direction it had come from. Unfortunately, he was paying so much attention to what was around him, he failed to notice the short drop in front of him. He might've noticed it if he hadn't been walking backwards at the moment.

Needless to say, 9 was surprised when he suddenly fell backwards and rolled down the beams that sloped to the basement. The light staff stopped about two feet away from him. 9 quickly got up, but before he could take a step towards the light staff, he heard growling behind him.

Just like 7, 9 had no time to react before the Beast grabbed him in its mouth. It began banging his head against the wall really hard. 9 was unconscious in moments.

Insert story breaker here

The first thing 9 was aware of when he began to wake up was the lingering pain in his head and an odd but familiar chirping sound. He opened his eyes to find the Annodite queen from the day before standing directly over him, holding his light staff. 9 looked around to find hundreds of normal annodites around them.

A bit of a distance away, Boris said, "Wouldn't you know it? That Cat Beast thing set up a trap for us in here. You okay, 9?"

The annodite queen got off after giving back the light staff, and 9 said, "I'm fine."

Boris came into view and said, "Good thing the annodites followed us. Unfortunately, they can't find 7, either." Boris shivered. "I can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen…"

9 had the same feeling, and so did the annodites.

The queen annodite motioned for 9 and Boris to follow it. Outside, it was still cloudy. However, if any of them had looked up, they would've seen that the clouds directly covering the sun had parted to reveal that the moon was right next to the sun…

Insert story breaker here

7 ran through the empty streets. The Cat Beast had chosen a clever place to hide her: the sewer. When 7 had woken up, her left side had hurt more than the rest of her body. It had taken her a while to remember what had happened: the Cat Beast's attack on her had given her very minor memory loss. It had also caused her to forget that she was…

7 turned a corner and saw 9, a dragon with the same color scales as Boris, and countless insects heading in the direction of the cathedral.

"9!" she yelled.

When 9 saw her, a look of relief crossed his face and they both ran towards each other. Suddenly, it began to get dark. The instant that happened, a wave of intense agony ripped through 7's whole body and she quickly went unconscious. She had never felt so much pain before. It was like something was trying to rip out her soul…

Insert story breaker here

When 7 collapsed, 9 felt a wave of panic sweep through him. He ran towards her, a sense of urgency dominating him. When he got to 7, he got on his knees and gently shook her, hoping for a response. One of her fingers twitched just a little. He hoisted her onto his back. Suddenly, he remembered the vision he had had so long ago, after he had fallen into the ravine. 9 quickly pushed that thought to the back of his mind. He had to help 7.

Boris rushed up to them, put them on his back, and rushed to the cathedral, the Annodites close behind.

Insert story breaker here

5 said, "You've met him before?"

Keith said, "Yes. The last time I saw 1 was 25 years ago. He was washed down a river, clinging to a piece of driftwood. I could only watch. He had been with me my whole life. It was like losing a brother. And believe me, I know how that feels."

Maria, Nancy's oldest child at 24 and dressed in bright yellow robes, put her hand on his back and looked at him compassionately. Keith looked at the young infant Maria held in her arms. The infant, a female, was also dressed in bright yellow robes. She had Keith's blonde hair and Maria's emerald green eyes.

Suddenly, it began to get dark. The ambient noise in the cathedral quieted. Sparrow, the bronze dragon, took off from his perch on the plane and flew above the clouds to see what was happening.

Nolan, who had been passively watching the activities of everyone else, suddenly said, "Something terrible has happened…" A look of immense concern crossed his face. Everyone who knew Nolan was deeply surprised, but they couldn't help but feel that he was right.

Keith found himself thinking about his brief trip to the factory the day before. Even though it was inactive, the Fabrication Machine still frightened him, and was the reason that his trip had been brief. He knew that he didn't want to see what it looked like when it was active.

Alice looked at Nolan. When he had come in and seen her, to her surprise, he didn't even give her an angry look. She was glad about that, but she still wondered.

Alice hoped that Boris would be back soon. She hadn't gotten much of a chance to even talk to him that morning. She hoped that he would know what was going on.

Kathleen looked at Maria and Keith with a slight smile on her face. She had been wondering who Jean's father was.

Anthony sat near some wolves, curious about the newborn wolf pups. Heather was sitting next to him. They had the same eye, hair, and skin color.

Abigail sat on one of the benches with a cat purring in her lap. She was reminiscing on her early childhood. She could remember her sister's death as though it had just happened. Abigail had a hunch as to why it was suddenly getting dark, but she didn't say anything.

Sparrow suddenly swooped in through the ceiling, landed, and rushed towards the doors. With the assistance of a few concerned hunans, they quickly opened the doors. Keith, one of them, looked to see what was coming…and quickly got out of the way so that he wouldn't get run over by Boris.

The moment the other stitchpunks saw 7, they knew that something had happened.

Boris lied down and 9, still carrying 7 on his back, got off.

2 rushed over to them and said, "What happened?"

9 said, "I'm not sure."

Boris said, "She collapsed the moment it started to get dark and I have no idea why."

At that point, the annodite queen had caught up with them. 5 was a little freaked out when he saw how large it was.

1 had noticed that 6 was staring up at the sky and was tightly gripping his key. 1 went up to him. 6 looked at him and said something that 1 couldn't quite hear.

1 said, "What?"

6 said, "It-it's come back. It's come back."

"What do you mean by 'it'?"

6 didn't say anything. He just looked at 1 fearfully. 6 then began rummaging through his bag.

1 shook his head and looked back at 2, who was now helping 9 carry 7 to 5 and 2's workshop (or whatever it's called).

The annodite queen noticed that 5 had only one eye. It went up to him (which, needless to say, really freaked him out) and put one of its legs on the piece of leather covering the empty eye socket. It was extremely difficult to tell, but there was a look of concern on its face. 5, when he realized that, was rather surprised.

1 went over to the entrance of 5 and 2's workshop and listened to what was going on.

Inside, 2 had finished examining 7 (he had been looking for injuries and only injuries).

He looked at 9 and said, "Well, it looks like we'll just have to wait for her to wake up."

9 just looked at him. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't help but feel like he had known that 2 and the others had been alive all along.

9 went over to 7 (she was lying on the roller-skate bed thing or whatever it's called) and gently stroked her arm.

2 said, "Um, 9?"

9 said, "Yes?"

"Have you felt unusually anxious today or is it just me?"

"I don't think it's just you."

"Good." 2 looked toward the rest of the cathedral. "This sudden darkness is extremely unnerving."

"It is." An idea suddenly came into 9's head. "Do you think-do you think it means something?"

2 looked at him and said, "I don't know, 9. I just don't know."

9's eyes suddenly widened.

2 said, "What?"

Before 9 could explain, they both heard 7 groan as she woke up. The moment she regained her senses, she got off the roller-skate bed (or whatever it's called)…and she immediately collapsed onto her knees, her arms clutching her stomach. 9 and 2 rushed over to her, 9 putting his arms around her and 2 simply putting his hand on her shoulder, both of them getting on their knees.

7 was leaning so far forward, she had practically doubled over. 9 tried to put his hand on her stomach, but she pushed it away. She looked at him for a few moments before looking back at herself. There had been a look of helplessness and mild horror on her face.

Suddenly, 9 remembered the dream he had had 100 years ago in the factory. 7 remembered 9's description of that dream.

_So_, she thought. _This is what'd cause me to do that._ There was an immense feeling of discomfort in her stomach.

After a few moments, her discomfort went away enough for her to sit up straight. When she did, she noticed 1 standing in the entrance to the workshop. 9 and 2 soon noticed as well.

1 said, "7, you are aware of why what's been happening to you over the last four months has been occurring, correct?"

7 said, "I think I knew it this morning, but…I don't remember now."

"Well, I have talked to the others and they have noticed definite changes in your behavior. Talking with some of the hunans, especially with Anthony, confirmed my suspicions. As Anthony put it, there's only one explanation that makes the most sense to me, and even that's ridiculous."

"And that explanation is…?"

2's eyes widened when he realized that what was happening now was the same as his dream. He paid close attention to what 1 was going to say.

1 said, "7, you're pregnant."

9, who had already figured it out, looked back at 7.

7 was initially shocked, but it quickly faded when she remembered realizing it earlier.

2 hadn't quite expected 1 to say that. "WHAT?" He stood up. "But that's impossible! She isn't designed for that!"

1 said, "I KNOW! But it's the only explanation that makes any real sense!"

1 led 2 out of the room as they continued to argue. When they were gone, 9 tried to put his hand on 7's stomach. This time, she let him.

Insert story breaker here

When 1 and 2 came out of the workshop, the other stitchpunks went over to them. Noticing this, 1 motioned for 2 to stop talking.

5 said, "What happened?"

1 waited until all of the stitchpunks were close enough, then rather quietly said, "7 is pregnant."

Unsure if he heard him correctly, 5 said, "What?" The rest of the stitchpunks leaned in closer.

In a voice that all of the stitchpunks could clearly hear, 1 said, "7 is pregnant."

Still not quite sure if he heard him correctly, 5 said, "Did you just say that 7's…pregnant?"

"Yes. And I'm being very serious." He had a very serious expression on his face.

The twins looked at each other. So that was what that weird voice from 100 years ago was talking about.

The others, however, still didn't know about that. 8 got an extremely confused look on his face. 6 dropped to his knees. He had definitely been able to tell that something was different about 7, but pregnancy had not been among his suspicions.

5 stood there with an almost humorous look on his face…and then he began to tip over. 2 quickly caught him and laid him on the ground.

9, who had secretly been watching, almost panicked when he saw 5 faint.

When Boris noticed that 5 had fainted, he practically jumped out of Alice's lap and rushed to them. Alice followed.

When Boris got to them, he let his expression ask his question.

1 said, "He fainted because he found out that 7's pregnant."

Boris got a puzzled look on his face and said, "You guys didn't already tell him?"

2 said, "You knew all along?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought you already knew."

Stacy, who was practically right next to them, said, "Who cares about stuff like that when the Pyrins could come and capture us at any time?"

Keith, who was holding Jean in his arms, said, "Actually, I think the Pyrins are the least of our worries. As far as I know, the rest of the Pyrins have no idea that we're here, and I don't think they're looking in the right places. It could be a long time before they find us."

Everybody present was calmed by how confidently he said that, and he was right.

However, none of them had any idea how right Keith was about the Pyrins being the least of their worries…

**Author's note: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Sorry. I couldn't resist.)**

**Anyway, I know that it might have been a little pointless for 7 to realize that she was pregnant and then forget it, only to rediscover it by being told by someone else. The reason I had her realize it earlier is because, well, one of the last things I want to happen is for it to seem like 7 is a little (how shall I put this?) ignorant in this story. At least now you guys might have something to review about, concerning the other stitchpunks' reactions to discovering that 7's pregnant.**

**Also, from this point on (not immediately, though), things are going to get a bit more…interesting. MWAHAHAHAHAHA! (Once again, I couldn't resist.)**


	9. Reawakening

Finally, somebody said, "Why is it so dark?"

Sparrow chirped something to Boris.

Boris said, "Eh, what's a solar eclipse?"

Abigail suddenly said, "It's when the moon moves in front of the sun. It doesn't happen very often. It's nothing to be concerned about."

After a few moments, almost everybody went back to whatever it was that they had been doing.

6 went back to his bag and desperately rummaged through it. He pulled out a drawing of an owl that looked at bit odd, looked at it briefly, and put it aside. It wasn't what he was looking for.

Boris went back to where he had been while Alice stayed so that she could talk to the stitchpunks.

The infertile annodite queen hadn't been close enough to hear 1 properly.

It went up to Boris and, in the language of the animals, said, _"Greetings, um, Boris, I believe it was."_

Boris, in English, said, "Hey."

"_What was it that 1 said? Something about 7?"_

Boris rather quietly said, "Ah yes. She's pregnant."

"…_What?"_

"I said, 7 is pregnant."

"…_7's…pregnant?"_

"Yes."

"…_She's…going to have a baby?"_

"Yes…"

"…"

"…"

"…_Are you joking?"_

"No…"

"…_But…that's not possible."_

"I know. But there it is."

"…_Um…What-what are her symptoms?"_

"Well, Anthony told me that 9 told him that 7 had been nauseous for the first three months."

The annodite queen knew who Anthony was. _"…How far along is she?"_

"About four months, I think."

The annodite queen looked at 7 and 9, who were talking to Alice (the rest of the stitchpunks had moved elsewhere). Then it looked back at Boris.

"_Thank you."_

"You're welcome."

The queen then scuttled off towards 9, 7, and Alice.

Insert story breaker here

Alice said, "So you have no idea how exactly it's possible?"

9 said, "No."

"But you don't exactly care about that, do you?"

"…Not really."

Alice smiled. Then she noticed the annodite queen only a few inches away from her. Uncomfortable around such a large insect, she moved a few feet away from it.

The annodite queen had no interest in Alice. It went up to 7, bowed its head, and gently pressed its head against 7's stomach (somewhat unintentionally creating a rather awkward moment). The annodite queen suddenly felt something moving inside 7, and the queen was fully and finally convinced that 7 was pregnant.

Insert story breaker here

She peered through the doors to the cathedral, making sure that she didn't expose herself. When she saw just how many animals there were, she was very surprised. Her brother had told her that there were a lot of animals in the building the stitchpunks lived in, but she hadn't expected THIS many (of course, this was the first time she had actually SEEN animals).

She knew that she would have to rethink her plan. If she tried to go in there, she would last, at best, about a minute. There was no way whatsoever she would be able to get in there without being noticed instantly.

She suddenly noticed two living dolls (apparently the stitchpunks) heading towards the door. She quickly hid around the corner of the building and watched the entrance, waiting for the stitchpunks to come out.

Only one came out. It seemed to be missing an eye. It stopped about a foot away from the door and sat down. It seemed to be very stressed out.

It wasn't the one her father wanted, but he would be pleased nonetheless. She crept up to the stitchpunk as quietly as she could until she was close enough to the point where it was almost impossible for the stitchpunk to escape. When she was at that point, she charged forward. The stitchpunk almost immediately looked in her direction. The moment he saw her, he began to scream and tried to run back into the building. But it was too late. He had hardly even gone an inch before she grabbed him tightly in her talons. It briefly screamed louder.

Suddenly, the doors of the massive building opened. Standing in the doorway was a (admittedly) majestic creature that was considerably larger than she was. They both backed away from each other briefly.

Knowing that the creature would easily be able to take the stitchpunk away from her, she quickly flapped her wings and headed home.

Insert story breaker here

Even though it was dark, Boris was clearly able to see the machine. It was definitely not the Cat Beast. This machine looked like an owl, except that its wings were more like a dragon's (the skin being replaced by fabric). Its "beak" was also more like a hawk's, and its toes were ¾ sharp talons.

After just a few moments, the machine began to fly away, still holding 5 in its talons. Boris immediately took off after it, unaware that 9 had grabbed onto Boris' tail and was climbing up his back.

Boris, in the animal language, said, _"Hey! Give him back!"_

The machine looked back at him. In something similar to the animal language, it said, _"You'll have to catch me first!"_ It flapped faster as it headed towards the factory.

Boris also flapped his wings faster, but he wasn't quite able to get up to the same speed as the machine, the Owl Beast.

At that point, 9 was at the point where Boris' neck connected to his torso. He stopped climbing there.

As Boris and the Owl Beast got closer to the factory, 9 noticed that the clouds above the factory seemed darker than the rest of the clouds. Just then, the sky began to get brighter as the eclipse began to end.

Boris noticed the darker clouds as well, but he was far more focused on getting 5 back.

When Boris and the Owl Beast were about 30 feet from the bridge when 9 noticed something else about the factory that made him nervous.

He thought, _are those pumps…moving?_

9 became even more nervous when he realized that they were. The sky became brighter.

9 quickly opened the zipper on his torso…and a wave of horror swept through him.

_**The Talisman was gone.**_

At that point, Boris and the Owl Beast were close enough to hear the heartbeat sound caused by the machinery in the factory. 9, upon hearing the heartbeat sound, almost fainted.

The Owl Beast headed for the front entrance, not fully aware of how close Boris was to it. As it began to land just inside the entrance, Boris jumped on it and pinned it to the ground. The machine began screeching loudly. Boris ripped off one of its wings before the Cat Beast suddenly jumped on his head.

When he got it off, he saw that the Owl Beast was heading further into the factory. Boris chased it, failing to notice that several machines had come into the room.

The Owl Beast had slowed down due to the intense pain caused by Boris ripping off its wing. Because of this, Boris was able to catch up to it by the time it had reached the top of a chute. He jumped on the Owl Beast, causing them both to fall down the chute. Along the way, Boris was able to get 5 out of its talons. He immediately noticed that 5 was unconscious.

When they came out the chute, Boris quickly jumped over the small pool of oil near the bottom of the chute…and gasped at what he saw.

9 did not even try to see what had made Boris gasp. If it was what he thought it was, then he didn't want to be seen.

The Owl Beast, still at the bottom of the chute, said, _"Father, the stitchpunk you wanted is on this creature's back."_

It just sounded like screeching to 9, but Boris understood it.

Boris suddenly dashed to the right as something lunged at him. 9 looked back…and was filled with dread and horror.

_**The Fabrication Machine was very much alive, was staring directly at them, and had the Talisman in its socket.**_

As Boris desperately looked for a way out, the Fabrication Machine lunged at them again, moving faster than 9 remembered it doing so. Boris quickly hid behind debris in the factory, continually moving to avoid being caught by the Machine. Eventually, he got to a place where the Machine could not easily get them. He looked at his back and was rather surprised to see 9.

Boris then took a closer look at 5. There was a cut on 5's leg that ran the length of the fabric on his leg.

Suddenly, Boris heard a voice say, _"Still trying to hide from me? There's no point in it. Not when I can hear your heartbeat."_ It was the Fabrication Machine.

When it said that, Boris grabbed 9, put him on the ground, put 5 in front of 9, and quietly moved to another hiding spot.

9 knew what he was doing. Boris was going to try to distract the machines so that 9 and 5 could get out.

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound just outside their hiding place. One of the Machine's claws came in, probing for the stitchpunks. 9 quickly picked 5 up and backed away from the claw.

Suddenly, something grabbed them from behind. 9 initially panicked, but he was calmed and surprised when he saw that it was the infertile annodite queen. The insect queen then let out a patterned chirping sound to the normal annodites behind them. Countless annodites swarmed towards the claw. 9 wondered what the queen had told them. He didn't get a chance to find out though, as the queen then hoisted the two stitchpunks onto its back and let out a different chirping pattern to the mass of remaining annodites. The annodites swarmed onto the queen and the stitchpunks until 9 couldn't see anything. Pressed up against countless annodites, the buzzing sound caused by their tiny wings flapping was almost more than he could stand.

He suddenly felt very faint…

Insert story breaker here

The first thing 9 was aware of when he began to wake up was that it was very quiet. The silence was quickly interrupted by a soft chirping sound. 9 looked up to find the annodite queen directly over him. He gently scratched the side of what could've been considered as its neck. The insect queen made a contented purring sound.

When 9 looked around, he saw that Anthony was sitting next to them and that they were just outside the cathedral. Heather was next to Anthony.

Anthony said, "Boris told me and Heather about the Fabrication Machine. He's talking to the adults about what they should do now at the caravans. Everybody else is in the cathedral. I haven't told the other stitchpunks about the Fabrication Machine yet."

Heather said to 9, "Speaking of the other stitchpunks, you better get in there. 7's raising all kinds of hell over you being gone. I think she's figured out that the Machine's back."

The moment she said "hell", Anthony and the annodite queen looked at her with humorous expressions.

Anthony said, "Sis…where did you hear that word used like that?"

Heather said, "From Stacy."

"Sis…do me a favor and don't say that in front of anybody else."

"All right, but that doesn't change the fact that 7's really upset."

The annodite queen got off of 9 and he quickly rushed into the cathedral. He had barely gone in when 7 suddenly ran towards him and hugged him. She ran into him with so much force, she knocked him over. 9 quickly sat up and, after a few moments, hugged 7 back.

1 went up to them and said, "You wouldn't believe how upset 7 was while you were gone."

9 slid one of his hands onto 7's stomach. 7 slid one of her hands onto his.

After a few moments, 1 got onto his knees and said, "So, 9…what happened after you and Boris followed that thing?"

**Author's note: I gonna end this chapter here because I think it's a good place to stop.**

**Seriously guys, review this story. If I don't get reviews, I feel like people don't like my story.**


	10. Brutus

A wave of doubt swept through 1's mind as he carefully picked up an unconscious 7 and carried her on his shoulder. Why was he, old and frail, risking his life, which was ebbing away as slowly as molasses, to save 7, whom he still had difficulty getting along with? The answer was simple; it wasn't 7 he wanted to save so much as…

1 didn't remember what had happened, but when he had woken up, he had felt hollow, empty, and a bit tired. Most people might've ignored it, but 1 knew very well what it meant, and there was nothing anybody on the planet could do about it. That was why he had refused Abigail's offer to take him home; he didn't want any of the other stitchpunks to feel like they could've done something. Nobody could help him. Except, perhaps…

1, slowly making his way toward the cathedral and with 7 slung over his shoulder, quietly said, "Nameless Sister…please save us."

Insert story breaker here

Stacy said, "What do you mean you can't find 9?"

Kathleen said, "That's just it! I can't find him!"

"What happened?"

"I wanted to bring him and 5 to 2, but when I got there, I only had 5!"

Pleather, whom Kathleen had quickly learned was not murder-crazy, said, "Did you fall down on the way?"

"…No, but I did run into Brutus…"

From behind them, Brutus said, "I didn't kidnap 9, just so you know."

All three of them turned around…and Brutus threw a bowlful of brown stuff onto Stacy's chest.

"I thought you were still chasing me."

Stacy, infuriated, said, "What the hell was that for?"

"What happened to your pants?"

"Jason happened."

"Ah. I see. Don't look at me like that! It's only mud!"

Stacy took a closer look. It was, indeed, just mud.

Brutus looked at Pleather and said, "Aren't you that crazy chick from when Keith came?"

"I'm not crazy. And I saw what you did to 2. How could you do something like that to ANYBODY?"

"Keith doesn't like you, right?"

"Right, but…"

"Then you might wanna get going, 'because he's heading right for us."

Indeed, Keith was coming up to them from the other direction. But there was clearly something wrong with him. And, strangely, he had his bag with him.

Pleather somewhat reluctantly left. When Keith was close enough to the three children, he said, "We…have a fairly large…problem on our hands." He showed them what he was holding. It was the Winged Beast…or rather, what was left of it.

Its tail, wings, and mouth were gone, and three of its eyes were broken, along with other damages.

Stacy said, "Jason?"

"Not Jason. He was nearby, but he looked like Pleather beat him up. This…this looks like a monster attacked it."

Kathleen said, "Wait… Is that thing still alive?"

The Winged Beast slowly nodded.

Brutus, slowly backing up, said, "Um, guys?"

All three said, "What?"

"There's something behind you…"

Insert story breaker here

Anthony, who was now sitting outside the caravan and talking to Nathan, said, "…And that is how Benny and I became friends."

Nathan said, "That's quite a story."

Maria said, "And his best one."

Surprised, Anthony turned towards her voice…and found that he had the attention of almost everybody in the tribes.

Anthony quietly said, "Not again…" then said, "I've told you guys! It's not a story! It really happened! What do I have to do to prove it? …Oh forget it. Move along, folks. Nothing else to see here."

The crowd soon dispersed.

Anthony said, "Geez. What does it take to-"

Suddenly, Brutus, Stacy, Kathleen, and Keith came running from the ruins with Brutus yelling, "Help! We're being chased by a monster wolf!"

To prove it, the mechanical Wolf Beast sprang out behind them.

Maria, who was holding Jean, just so happened to be nearby. Consequentially, she was quickly attacked by it. Keith, seeing this, quickly ran back and slammed his bag into the machine's head, allowing Maria to escape.

Keith, preparing to attack, quickly reached into his bag and took out…a roughly spherical Veridian crystal the size of a human head. Keith was surprised, but he held onto it and smashed it onto the Wolf Beast's head.

_The Veridian crystal shattered into numerous pieces, causing an amber-colored liquid to splatter onto Keith and the machine._

Both of them stood there. The Wolf Beast stared at the ground, panting and trembling. Keith was shocked. His crystal had been subject to much greater forces. _How could it have shattered?_

Keith slowly turned towards the others and said, "That wasn't supposed to happen…"

Brutus, walking towards him, said, "The thing breaking or the stuff coming out?"

"Both…"

Brutus wiped some of the liquid onto his hand and licked it. "Tastes citrusy."

Keith tried it. "It does."

Anthony said, "That thing doesn't exactly look monstrous…"

Brutus said, "That's not what was chasing us."

"Then what was chasing you?"

Before Brutus could answer, a boy almost completely covered in feathers came up behind Anthony and said, "Anny, I need to talk to you."

Anthony whirled around and said, "Benny, this isn't a good time…"

"It's really important, Anny. It can't wait."

"All right, what is it?"

Benny briefly looked at the others before saying, "Um… The elder one who is near another of opposite gender who carries unborn life is moving towards the void's gates as swiftly as snails and only the nameless sister who lives in a tree can stop him."

Benny gave Anthony a quick salute before rushing off.

There was silence for several moments before Stacy said, "What?"

Anthony said, "Whenever Benny has something important to say, he usually says it in some form of riddle. I don't know why."

Kathleen said, "So what did he say?"

"Um… An old man who's near a pregnant woman is dying very slowly and the only one who can save him…is not in this world."

"How do you know they're not here?"

"I'd tell you…but you wouldn't believe me."

Meanwhile, the Wolf Beast had left.

Insert story breaker here

The first thing 9 was aware of upon waking up was that he was lying on something fuzzy. He looked up and saw that he was on the back of 8's wolf. They were in front of the cathedral.

9 had no idea what had happened. He had poked himself with the feather and then…nothing. He tried to remember what had happened, but the only thing he could remember was the tired-sounding voice of a woman saying, "I'll always be watching over you and the others, 9…"

Insert story breaker here

The Wolf Beast slowly walked through the ruined streets. When the liquid spattered onto him, something had changed. For the first real time, he was wondering where the stitchpunks had come from, who created his Father, what the town had looked like before, and many more things. And he felt _alive_. It was a strange feeling. He felt fuller and more complete and felt like he truly existed… No, more than that. It was hard to describe.

Whatever it felt like, it was a very pleasant feeling. He felt like something had taken off a burden that he hadn't even realized was there. He felt…euphoric…

If the Wolf Beast could smile, he would be doing so. It was such a good feeling. Was this what his father was after? Was this what his father wanted to feel? If so, then he would gladly help him. Without harming the cute stitchpunks, of course…

The Wolf Beast stopped. Cute? He had never heard that word before. How could he properly use a word that he had never heard befo-

Something suddenly touched him. A chill ran through his body.

The voice of a tired-sounding woman said, "Can you hear me?"

The beast nodded.

"Good. Now, one of the stitchpunks is in danger of dying. He's with another stitchpunk who you must be careful with. Find them and bring them home before nightfall or else I won't be able to save the one that's dying…"

The Wolf Beast turned to look at who was talking to him…

Insert story breaker here

Anthony said, "Brutus, about what you did to 2…"

Brutus said, "You mean that old geezer? Ah, it's okay. You don't need to worry about him so much."

"Brutus, you traumatized him to the point where he can't speak."

"Did I? Well he should be fine in a few hours-"

"I don't think we're going to get him talking again for a while. Also, considering what you did to him the first time, I'm surprised that he hadn't gone insane."

"Wanna know where I got the idea to do that?"

"NO. What I DO want to know is how you could do something like that to someone as nice as 2."

"It was possible to do it, so I did it."

"…Stacy was right. You DON'T have any morals."

"Whadda ya mean?"

"Brutus, you stuffed him into a pile of your ***1. That is WRONG on a NUMBER of levels."

Somebody nearby said, "He did WHAT?"

Insert story breaker here

1 diligently trudged through the ruins, still carrying 7 on his shoulder, with the hot mid-summer afternoon sun beating down on him. The heat, 7's weight added weight, and his already-weak body were draining his strength and causing his life to fade away even faster. If this continued, he might not make it to the cathedral before nightfall. At nightfall, he would run an increasingly high risk of collapsing, and if he collapsed, he'd never get up again.

One of 1's legs suddenly gave out from under him, and he was forced to stop and rest for a few minutes. He looked up at the sky. The bright, blue, completely cloudless sky seemed to contrast sharply with the grey and desolate ruins below.

1 was glad that he could see the cathedral tower. It was the only way he could tell if he was going in the right direction. Unfortunately, he was too far away to be seen from the watchtower…even if someone was up there.

1 forced himself to get up. He had to continually remind himself that he was doing this to protect 7's child. Why? Because…he had to. 1 almost chuckled when he realized that. Here he was, risking his ever-fading life to ensure the survival of the child of the ones he disliked the most (aside from the Pyrins and the machines, of course). It felt just like when he had sacrificed his life to save 9's from the Fabrication Machine…

1 suddenly realized something startling; the efforts made by the Fabrication Machine to capture the stitchpunks and to kill life in general were surprisingly weak. It was almost as though it was holding back…

1's other leg gave out and forced him to stop. There was a dull, aching pain throughout his entire body…a pain that would only get worse.

_No…_, he thought. _I won't get there before nightfall…_

1 forced himself back up. He could hardly do it. His body ached, begging for rest. He trudged forward, constantly reminding himself that he was doing this to save a life that had yet to live. He soon felt dizzy and his mind became foggy. He wasn't even sure if he was going in the right direction anymore (fortunately, he was).

1 had been walking for only 30 minutes. Two hours later, he was still walking towards the cathedral…but he was very weak. 1's body was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, and his heavy panting was beginning to become shaky. He had been wondering if something was deliberately trying to make it harder for him to keep going.

Unbeknownst to him, 2, 5, and 9 had long since returned to the tower, and all of them had learned what the hunans had found out; 1 was trying his hardest to get back home with 7…even though there was a possibility that he was dying.

1's limbs trembled as he struggled to support himself and 7. He regretted his decision to turn down Abigail's offer to take him home. He couldn't shake the feeling that if he had just rested as much as possible instead of unnecessarily exerting all his energy, he could've survived.

Finally, 1's legs collapsed from exhaustion. Unable to get up, he knelt there, panting shakily. Looking around, his eyes fell upon a pile of rubble that made a sort of cave. 1 crawled over to it, taking 7 with him.

Inside the cave, it was dark and cool and cozy. 1 found himself deeply tempted to stop and rest in the cave for a while. 1's mind was too tired to function, so he let his hot and tired body determine his decision.

1 gently set 7 on her side and set her against the side of the wall. 1 lied down near her and fell asleep.

Insert story breaker here

The Wolf Beast panted in fear. The thing that had been talking to him had just gotten attacked by the Cat Beast, and both had quickly learned that the creature, whatever it was, could not defend itself. The Wolf Beast had no idea what exactly had happened after that, but something had forced his head into a wall. He could hear what they were saying, though.

A male voice said, "I knew you cared about them, but I didn't think you'd go THAT far."

The female voice said, "I had to… Saving him would've been impossible otherwise…"

"Sister, you know that it's dangerous here and you can't defend yourself. As much as you may care about them, they are not your children…or do you consider them as such?"

"I'll…tell you when we're alone…" She was starting to sound weak.

"…Sister…as much as you may care about others, you must care about yourself. We must get back. Don't worry, he'll be okay…"

The Wolf Beast was pulled out of the wall. When he turned to where the voices had been, there was nothing there…

Insert story breaker here

Chills ran through 1's body, causing him to shiver even though it wasn't cold. At first, he couldn't remember what had happened prior to his falling asleep. When he did, he jolted up-or at least tried to. He hardly had more energy than before, but he did feel somewhat stronger. He carefully picked up 7, who was still unconscious, and carried her outside on his shoulder. The moment he saw where the sun was, 1 knew that he had been asleep for a long time; the sun was going to set in 2 hours.

1 immediately began going as fast as he could without tiring himself too quickly. He might as well have just walked as normally as he could. Any time he might have saved by going faster was lost by him having to slow down several times. But he refused to stop.

After an hour and a half, though, it became increasingly obvious that 1 was not going to get to the cathedral before sundown. He was, at the absolute least, 200 feet from the cathedral. Regardless, 1 kept going. He wanted to make sure that 7 was safe so that her baby would be safe.

Although 7 seemed fine, 1 had gotten much worse. His entire body trembled from weakness and it took every ounce of his strength just to stand up. His mind felt foggy and slow and his gasping was strained and shaky. He was surprised that he was still able to stand. He knew very well, though, that if he even so much as got onto one knee, he'd never get back up.

After 25 minutes, he didn't have the strength to look up to see if he was still going in the right direction anymore. Trying to speak would be pointless. He would've barely had the strength to get his voice above a raspy whisper, and nobody was close enough to hear him anyway. Besides, it would've just wasted his strength.

Over the course of the 2 hours, the sky had become covered with dark clouds. Fortunately, they were just rain clouds. Unfortunately, they also made it impossible to tell how close the sun was to setting. Even if they weren't there, though, 1 still wouldn't have been able to see as he was unable to look.

The pain all over 1's body was far worse. It was worse than when his soul had been sucked out by the Talisman; that had lasted only a few seconds, while this had lasted the entire two hours.

After several agonizing minutes, 1 felt something in him finally give out. He carefully slid 7 off his shoulder so that she harmlessly landed on her back. 1 then fell face-down onto the dusty dirt.

1 didn't care about the fact that he was still a long way from the cathedral. He didn't care that he could die out here in the ruins. He didn't care about what happened to him. He didn't care about anything. The only thing that went through his mind was the hope that 7 would get back to the cathedral safely; whether she woke up and went back herself or if somebody found them and took them back, he didn't care. He only hoped that a machine wouldn't find them first. As a small droplet of water landed on his arm, 1 closed his eyes, readying himself for his inevitable death.

Suddenly, 1 felt a hand on his arm and he heard 7, terror-stricken, calling out his name. He curled up his hand to show that he could hear her. From the sound of her voice, 1 could tell that she was very concerned. He ignored her panicked statements for him to say something; he was too weak anyway.

She soon stopped talking and started making small crying sounds. 1 knew that 7's pregnancy was making her more emotional, but he still felt a bit touched. Wait… Her pregnancy… Oh no…

An abrupt realization hit 1; there was no way 7 would be able to get to the cathedral by herself. Her obvious pregnancy, coupled with the fact that it was starting to rain and the lengthy distance to the cathedral, meant that getting back without help was both unhealthy and dangerous. Not only would she not be able to defend herself if she was attacked by a machine, but so much physical activity would be both strenuous and risky, especially since she would likely get cold from the rain, and it was very possible for the stitchpunks to die of hypothermia (it had nearly happened to 1 once).

7 knew this and, since there was a severe lack of adequate shelter from rain nearby, did not have much optimism about what was going to happen.

However, help was much closer than either of them thought…

**Author's note: This didn't seem repetitive at any point, did it?**

**1****Note: Anthony did not actually say a swear word. I censored it because some people have not figured out what Brutus did to 2, and I don't want the image of what he did to stick in their heads…**

**I have received enough adequate reviews and I will not be taking down the story. I still encourage you guys to review, though.**

**Also, I'm thinking about rewriting the 1****st**** and 2****nd**** chapters so they fit the rest of the story better. They won't be major rewrites, but this is just a heads-up.**

**One last thing; would SOMEBODY PLEASE ask Celestial Rainstorm to work on her story? I can't as I'm not allowed to PM her (not fully sure why) and I'm not sure if other people are having that problem. And I'm not going to post a review asking her why she hasn't updated for so long.**

**And that's all I think I have to say for now.**


	11. The Scorpion

**This is officially the longest story I have ever written.**

The sun was setting by the time Gladdys left. With immense difficulty, Anthony had managed to convince her that Stacy was not in the cathedral.

When they were gone, Stacy climbed down from the tower, walked up to Anthony and said, "Thanks for getting rid of her."

Anthony cupped his hands around his ears and said, "WHAT?"

Stacy rolled her eyes and said, "I SAID, THANKS FOR GETTING RID OF HER."

"OH. YOU'RE WELCOME."

Somebody said, "Oh no, he has hearing loss!"

Somebody else said, "Considering that that woman was yelling in his face most of the time, that's not surprising."

A third child said, "That woman is as loud as her outfit!"

What followed was a long and rather interesting discussion entirely about Gladdys, her extremely colorful (and clashing) outfit, and her loud voice.

It was interrupted by Keith suddenly coming in and saying, "Well, that was a long meeting."

Somebody said, "What was the meeting about?"

"Do you know what the Fabrication Machine is?"

"Yeah, Anthony told us about that thing last night. Why?"

"Well, you see, um…"

Boris appeared next to him. "The thing's been reactivated, likely using my Veridian Crystal."

The instant 5 heard the words "The thing's been reactivated", bad memories immediately started coming back to him. Then he started thinking about what could happen as a result of the Machine's return (although some of his imaginings were extremely exaggerated and could not possibly happen).

He soon began to feel faint. Fortunately, 2 noticed and grabbed 5 so that he wouldn't get hurt from falling over.

6 didn't pay much attention to the small debate that followed. An important drawing of his was missing, and he knew he had to find it. However, he knew that it was highly unlikely that he would find it. He was extremely nervous about it, and his pacing caused him to be a fair distance from the others.

The Intell man with glasses suddenly came in and said, "All right kiddos, time to go home." He sounded very unenthusiastic.

Many of the kids immediately began (apparently) arguing with him about something until somebody said, "And the gas bombs-."

The moment that was said, Anthony said, "We don't have to worry about those."

When he said that, everybody stopped talking and started at him.

Keith said, "What in the world makes you say that?"

Anthony said, "Because it doesn't have any!"

"What? Of course it does! When I went in that factory, there were plenty of…"

Anthony had a smug smile on his face.

After several moments, Kathleen said, "I wondered why your arms were sore."

Keith said, "Huh?"

Anthony said, "After 9 told me about the Fabrication Machine and what it had done, I decided to remove the gas bombs and drop them in the gorge so that it didn't have an immediate way of getting rid of us. They were heavier than I thought, and there were a lot of them."

Keith said, "You're not used to physical labor, are you?"

Anthony didn't answer him.

The Intell man said, "Are you all going to get back to the caravans or no?" He sounded even more unenthusiastic.

Somebody said, "Why should we?"

"One of the things they decided at the meeting was that we were still going to celebrate the nine-day festival."

"Why?"

"Because it's traditional and they seriously doubted that we would be putting ourselves in immediate danger by celebrating. Besides, they told me to get you kiddos and I've gotta do that." The whole time he had been talking, he had sounded bored, unenthusiastic, and a little monotonous.

The man immediately began to get the children out the cathedral. Anthony, Heather, and Kathleen decided to wait until the rest of the kids left.

Insert story breaker here

She silently watched from a small hole in the wall partially covered by some rubble. The hole, just large enough for her to fit through, was not large enough to be noticed, and the rubble made it the perfect place to hide. In fact, she had been there almost as long as that loud and ugly woman had been.

She looked over at the stitchpunks. Several of them seemed to be in shock over something. She didn't care about what. All she cared about was getting one of them for her Father. She knew that getting one of them was, at the moment, impossible, for they would surely spot her before she even got close to them, and the huge number of animals complicated matters.

However, the humans (her Father had said they were humans) were distracted trying to get out of the cathedral, making it a bit easier for her. Suddenly, she noticed a stitchpunk that was considerably farther away from any of the other living beings in the building…except for her. In fact, it was so close, she would be able to sneak up on it without anything noticing until it was too late (provided they didn't look in her direction).

She crept up to it slowly and quietly, ensuring that it didn't hear her. She knew that it would likely scream the moment she grabbed it, but once she had it in her claws, getting away would be the easy part (for her). As she crept up to it, she charged her stinger with her paralyzing venom (it wasn't actually venom; it was an electromagnetic shock that could, depending on how much she charged it, weaken, paralyze, kill, or (and this was the one she really liked) sicken the one she stung). Hopefully, she wouldn't have to use it, but it was just in case.

Insert story breaker here

By the time the other stitchpunks got over their shock, only the Intell man, Keith, Boris, and Stacy were still in the cathedral.

The Intell man said to Stacy, "Are you going to come or no?"

Stacy said, "I don't want to have to face Gladdys' wrath."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sam, Gladdys can be a little…abusive."

Keith said, "Uh, guys?"

5, who was still in shock, said, "B-b-but the-the Machine…it…it needed the T-talisman to…"

Boris said, "I've been thinking about that. When I was searching for 7, the Cat Beast set up a trap for us in one of the houses. It got me trapped in a small pit and it knocked 9 unconscious. From what I heard, I think that it had enough time to get the Talisman before the annodites saved us."

Keith said, "Guys?"

1, who strangely had not appeared shocked, said, "How did you know that the Machine needed the Talisman to come back to life?"

"I heard about it from Anthony."

9 said, "How did you know that I had the Talisman?"

"I just figured."

Keith said, "Guys?"

Stacy noticed that Keith was staring in 6's direction. She looked…and her eyes widened.

"6, look out!"

He looked…and the Scorpion grabbed him and rushed to the hole in the wall at a surprisingly fast pace. Boris immediately rushed out of the cathedral to keep the Scorpion from going too far.

9, holding his light staff, ran after the Scorpion, followed by 8 and 1 (1 was following them so that he could see where the Scorpion had gotten in). 7 tried to follow them, but 2 stopped her.

When 1 saw the hole in the wall, he said, "That wasn't there before!" 8 and 9 kept going, but they knew he was right.

Outside, the Scorpion quickly ran towards the factory, holding 6 in one of its pincers. He had screamed when she had grabbed him, but he hadn't struggled at all. The tip of her stinger, fully charged with paralyzing venom, glowed orange.

Suddenly, the reptile her sister had described to her landed in front of her and growled. The Scorpion readied her stinger, waiting for a good moment to strike. Even in the fresh darkness of the night (the sun had set a while ago), she could clearly tell that scales covered its whole body. If she tried to sting it now, it would do nothing.

"_Let him go,"_ the reptile growled.

"_Hmph. In your dreams!"_

The reptile growled. It roared in an attempt to scare the machine…and got stung in the tongue by the Scorpion.

Boris was able to let out only a brief screech of pain before the Scorpion's venom took effect. He collapsed to the ground, almost all of his body numb. The only voluntary muscles he was able to control were his diaphragm and the muscles that controlled his eyelids and eyes.

The Scorpion, unable to resist gloating (and unaware of what was behind her), said, _"Fortunately for you, your paralysis will only last about an hour. It could have been worse, though. You should know better than to mess with me or…wait, why do you have that look in your eyes?"_

Suddenly, she felt something sharp slam into her tail, cutting it about a fourth of the way. The Scorpion screeched in pain and surprise. She whirled around to find the muscular-looking stitchpunk behind her, holding a large kitchen knife blade with a nail for a handle. The stitchpunk with the zipper was several feet behind him.

The Scorpion looked at the striped stitchpunk in her pincher…and tossed him aside. 6 quickly ran over to 9, knowing that he would be safe there…and knowing what was going to happen to 8.

The Scorpion narrowed her four eyes at 8 and got into a battle position. 8, knowing that it wasn't going to leave without a fight, readied himself for the Scorpion's next move.

They both stared each other down, waiting for the other to make their move. However, what 9 and 6 noticed that 8 didn't was that the tip of the Scorpion's tail had begun to glow orange, and it was slowly getting brighter. However, they knew that trying to warn 8 was a bad idea. 6, nervous, grabbed 9's wrist.

The Scorpion was glad that she couldn't express her emotions through facial expressions: if she could, the stitchpunk in front of her would've realized that she was charging her stinger. The Scorpion couldn't help but feel gleeful at the thought of what would soon happen to the stitchpunk. After only a minute, her stinger was fully charged.

The Scorpion prepared her stinger…and lunged at the stitchpunk. 8 thrust the end of his knife into one of the Scorpion's eyes, breaking the eye. It also caused the Scorpion to be forced backwards. The Scorpion, upon getting back on the ground, blinked her eyes. The one that 8 had damaged had stopped working. The Scorpion was a little annoyed, but she still had three fully functioning eyes.

8 stabbed his knife into the Scorpion's side, causing her to screech in pain again. She swatted 8 with one of her pincers in an attempt to knock him over or at least make him drop his knife. She knocked him backwards, but he stayed up and took the knife with him. 8 then lunged at the Scorpion again, breaking another one of her eyes.

The Scorpion jumped back two feet, surprised. This time, she was very annoyed. 8 had destroyed her two leftmost eyes, leaving her blind on that side.

9 and 6 were rather impressed by how well 8 seemed to be doing.

The Scorpion looked around for 8, but she didn't see him. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her left side as 8 slashed his knife through her side, cutting off one of her legs in the process. The Scorpion turned around to look at him…and 8 stabbed his knife into another of her eyes.

The Scorpion leapt backwards again, making sure that 8 remained within her sight. Now she was REALLY angry. She had hoped that using her stinger would be unnecessary, but that didn't seem the case anymore. She raised her stinger. 8 held his knife in front of him, preparing to slice off the stinger when it struck.

The Scorpion's stinger leapt forward and 8 raised his knife…and he got stung in the arm.

"Ow!" The pain from the sting almost made him drop his knife.

He stumbled backwards, slightly dazed by the sting. However, he did not go numb at all.

The Scorpion, seeing her chance, leapt on top of 8…and screeched loudly as she impaled herself on 8's knife (he had held it up before the Scorpion got too close).

The Scorpion stared into 8's eyes.

Only Boris could understand what she said next. _"…Oh you fool. You think that you've beaten me? Oh no, your problems have only just begun. Why do you think I stung you? The venom I used is the most torturous I have. You'll see what it does soon. I wonder how well they'll fare with you disabled. It's funny… Your body is so large it makes your head look small by comparison."_

The Scorpion's eye flickered a little.

"…_Ah…It's happening…Well…I'll use what I have left. You have no idea what that venom does, nor do you know just how much you'll suffer. My Father told me about it. I can't help but wonder what it's like… Oh well. Just for the better. You're the strongest of the group, but soon you'll be the weakest. I know that you can't…understand what I'm saying. Only the reptile can, but by the time his paralysis ends, it'll be too late to…do much of anything."_

The Scorpion's eye flickered again.

"…_Ugh…I don't…have much time left…You may have won for now, but…but my F-father and Siblings will…will get you…all of you…you're all dead…My Father…wanted you to…to know that…he's…stronger…than…last…t-time…"_

The Scorpion's eye dimmed and it went completely limp.

8 sat up and got the Scorpion's body off his knife. He quickly did a self-check. The pain from the sting had gone away very quickly. 8 felt a little strange, but other than that, he was absolutely fine.

Keith, who had been watching, said, "That didn't take as long as I thought it would."

Sam went over to Boris and was glad to see that he was still breathing. He then began to examine him.

Keith went up to 8 and said, "You okay?"

8 said, "Yeah."

"Good."

Sam said, "He's paralyzed."

Keith said, "Huh?"

"Boris. He's paralyzed."

"Oh."

"Hopefully that Scorpion's…whatever it used doesn't last long."

"Yeah. Least it's dead now."

9 looked at 6. There was a look of immense concern on 6's face. 9 couldn't help but feel like his concern was for 8.

Sam picked up Boris and headed back to the cathedral. When nobody followed him, he said, "Are you going to come or no?"

Everybody followed him back to the cathedral.

**Author's note: I'm going to stop here because I think this is a good place to stop.**

…

**I would like to use this opportunity to share my thoughts about something that has been included in a few recent stories. Mom, you don't have to read this part.**

**What I shall be talking about in this paragraph is something I'm going to call "methods of pregnancy" (I'm calling it that because I don't know what else to call it). There will be a few spoilers, but that's to be expected. I have seen two methods of pregnancy in this…**

**Geez. The music I'm listening to while I'm typing this is great, but…so…very…very…wrong… (Wait, why did I put that in there?)**

**Anyway, the methods I've seen are (in the order I've seen them) natural-ish pregnancy (seen in "Howl"), and the method of pregnancy seen in "Prodigal" (couldn't come up with a name for it).**

**I'll start with "Howl". In "Howl", 7 becomes pregnant (never says how) and the pregnancy goes very much like a human pregnancy in that 7 experiences nausea and (later on) feels the fetus moving inside her (along with the obvious symptom, i.e., distended abdomen (but that's only touched on…kinda)). At the end of her pregnancy (which is, unsurprisingly, much shorter than a human pregnancy), she somehow gives natural birth to the child.**

**Now this method is, as we all know, impossible in normal circumstances. In my story, I will explain how this method is possible…kinda. I'm not going to give any spoilers, but, as you could probably tell, the circumstances in which this occurred are far from normal. I'm using the method in "Howl" because, well, by the time I read "Prodigal", I had already posted a few chapters of this story.**

**In "Prodigal", 7 and 9 literally build the baby and, when they're not working on it, 7 stores it inside her. When they're finished, they bring it to life using pieces of their own souls.**

**I just have to say, kudos to you, Freida Right. I had never ever considered the method that you used. It is far more realistic and very possible in normal circumstances. HOWEVER…**

**For me, this is a case of personal feelings and "pro-is-con", meaning that, while the method is more realistic, it just doesn't seem…natural. I mean, the baby isn't alive until it is "born", and, as many of us known, human babies are alive before they are born. Also, they have to take out the baby to work on it, and…that just isn't appealing to me. I'm not saying it's bad, I just don't like it. (Although, granted, my feelings are likely because of my fascination with pregnancy and babies when my age was in the single-digit numbers.)**

**One last thing. I would just like to give a heads-up that I will change something in the story at any time and, if a detail seems to contradict something from an earlier part of the story, go back to that part and re-read it. I've probably changed it. If there is a continuity error, please let me know via PM.**


	12. The Tale of The Gods

Watching from the top of a building, she watched them leave. When they were gone, the Owl Beast flew down to the Scorpion. She gently brushed the Scorpion's head with her talons, checking for signs of life.

The Scorpion's eye flickered on and the Scorpion said, _"I sure fooled them, didn't I?"_

The Owl Beast, startled, said, _"You sure fooled me."_

"_Then I'd say I fooled them."_

"_You certainly did."_ The Owl Beast picked up the Scorpion and flew towards the factory.

The Owl Beast said, _"Say, what did you do to that stitchpunk?"_

"_I stung him with my sickening venom."_

"_What does that do?"_

"_You'll see in a few hours…that is, if I manage to get him."_

"_If?"_

"_I'll have to get past the other stitchpunks to get him, of course. And I'll have to get past all those animals, as well. There are probably a few other things as well, but I'll try."_

"_That's all we can ask for."_

"…_Um, sister?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Do you think Father will be mad when-?"_

"_While you were gone, Father built some Siblings to repair us in his place. He did that because a few of our brothers decided to fight each other because they were bored."_

"_Oh. Between who?"_

"_I'll introduce them to you when we get there. By the way, if that stitchpunk DOESN'T get captured…how long will your venom affect him?"_

"_It'll really begin affecting him in about half an hour. If I don't get to him and he doesn't waste his energy, it'll wear off by morning."_

Insert story breaker here

Stacy said, "He's right: this wasn't here before."

7 said, "How is it important whether or not that hole was there before?"

"I don't think it would be a good thing if machines could sneak in here undetected. And besides, we all have a natural curiosity in some form…I think."

Suddenly, Sam came in, still carrying a limp Boris in his arms.

Stacy said, "What the-?"

Sam said, "The Scorpion thing stung him. Don't know how long it'll last."

Sam set Boris down near the other dragons. Sparrow, concerned, walked over to Boris and lied down next to him.

The moment 9 came in, 1 grabbed his arm and said, "9, I would like to talk to you about something."

1 took 9 inside 5 and 2's workshop, looked outside briefly to make sure that nobody was trying to eavesdrop on them, then looked back at 9 and said, "9, have you, at any time, noticed a strange man that seems to be following us?"

9 said, "No."

"I have, and it doesn't appear to be anybody from any of the tribes."

"How do you know?"

"I described him to the leaders of the tribes, and to Keith, and none of them know of anybody who looks like him."

"When did you do that?"

"After our encounter with the annodite queen, the one that Anthony said was infertile."

"Oh. What did the man look like?"

"He had dark hair, tanned skin, and-."

However, before he could finish, they heard Stacy say, "8, are you okay?"

The moment she said that, 1 looked outside the workshop. 8 was in clear view. He looked strangely tired.

1 wasn't sure what was happening to 8, but he had a feeling that it would be a good idea to get 8 back to the tower.

Insert story breaker here

The Scorpion looked up the ladder leading to the tower. The ladder was in a secluded area, and it didn't look like it could withstand the weight of a human if one tried to climb it. However, the Scorpion knew that the ladder would be able to handle her weight. She began to climb, being careful not to grab the rungs too tightly. It creaked a little, but only the Scorpion could hear it.

If she could've smirked, she would've. That burly stitchpunk had no idea what was going to happen to him, nor that she was coming for him. Upon thinking that, the Scorpion reminded herself not to get overconfident. She still didn't have the stitchpunk, and getting it didn't seem like the hardest part. First, she would have to find him, get past the other stitchpunks, and then try to get him. If she got him, she would have to get out of the tower and the cathedral without being spotted.

Thinking about her plan, the Scorpion realized that waiting for the venom to wear off while inside the factory would be the easy part.

Upon reaching the top of the ladder, she found herself in an area of the tower that was in the same place the stitchpunks lived in, but it was rather isolated and looked like the stitchpunks used it for storage.

The Scorpion could hear the stitchpunks talking nearby. She could make out most of what they were saying (she had very sensitive hearing, far beyond a normal human's).

"Come on 8, let's…" It sounded like an old man (it was 1).

After a few moments, a female voice rather quietly said, "He's rather attached to the guy, don't you think?" It sounded like one of the humans.

A male voice, equally quietly, said, "Yep." (It was 5.)

"Unless you guys need me to do something, I'll just be on my way."

The Scorpion heard some sort of scuffling after that.

Some of the stitchpunks began talking not long after, but the Scorpion didn't pay much attention to what they were saying. Knowing that it would be a long while before she would be able to take the stitchpunk she stung, she settled down to rest. She lied down and put her legs between the cracks in the floorboards. She knew that it was going to be a long night. Especially for the stitchpunks.

Insert story breaker here

9 couldn't sleep. It wasn't anything to do with him; it was just that…something didn't feel right. It had been three hours since he had gone to bed. He knew that he wouldn't be getting to sleep any time soon, so he decided to check on 7.

When he left his room, it was absolutely silent. 1 was, once again, using his throne as a bed.

When 9 went into 7's room, he was glad to see 7 sleeping soundly. Then he noticed 3 and 4 in the corner, hugging each other in their sleep (9 couldn't resist giving a small chuckle upon seeing that). He wasn't surprised to see them there. They had seemed very anxious to spend some time alone with 7 after they found out what had been happening to her.

Insert story breaker here

It was completely dark, wherever 7 was. The only sound was a small whimpering sound that didn't sound familiar. Then she realized that she was lying on a black stone floor. She looked up to find a narrow rock bridge in front of her that led to a small rock island in the middle of a huge, circular chasm. There was something on the rock island, but 7 wasn't close enough to tell what.

She got up and started walking along the bridge. As she got closer, it became increasingly clear what was on the island. It was a humanoid creature with two pinpoints of light for eyes and its entire body was black. It didn't seem to hear 7 as she walked up to it, as it kept looking at the ground. It was chained to two metal-seeming poles by green-glowing cuffs and…chains.

When 7 was finally in its field of vision, it looked at her and, in a male voice, said, "Did you come here to try to liberate me?"

7 said, "Uh, no."

"That's okay. Trying to break these chains would only result in pain for you."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't need to tell you about that."

Suddenly, the being screamed in pain and the cuffs around his wrists glowed brighter. The glow traveled up through the chains and down through the metal poles.

The being, panting, weakly said, "Curse…these cuffs…they…suck out…my life…force…whenever…I get close…to gaining enough…strength to…break…these…chains… The chains…and cuffs are…made of pure…life force…any being…can break them…but these…chains…have a…safeguard on…them…to prevent…me from…being…freed by...accident…"

He stopped, too weak to keep talking.

7 couldn't help but feel sympathetic for him. "Can I try to break them?"

The being weakly nodded.

7 climbed up the pole on the right (it was surprisingly easy) and, when she got to the top, grabbed the chain. When she did, a strange tingling sensation went down her arm into her body, followed by a feeling that she wasn't very familiar with. After a few moments, she realized that it was a feeling of acceptance. 7, using her fingers as claws, tore the chain off the pole. She looked at the other pole and was surprised to find that the chain attached to that pole had also been torn off, but 7 couldn't see by what.

The moment the chains were severed from the poles, they dissipated, along with the cuffs. When the cuffs dissipated, the being's eyes went wide. He rubbed his wrists, looking shocked.

When 7 climbed down the pole and went in front of the being, he stared at her for several moments before saying, "Perhaps it would be worth telling you about the gods after all…"

The being stretched out while saying, "You have no idea how long I've been attached to that thing. As for the gods…well, do you know what a god is?"

"I think so."

"What's your definition?"

"Um…a supernatural being, who is worshipped as the controller of some part of the universe or some aspect of life in the world or is the personification of some force."

The being laughed. "Did you get that from a book of some kind?"

"Yes. I think it was called a dictionary."

"Did it have a definition for the original gods?"

"Uh, no."

"Then allow me to tell you what the original gods are." At this point, he was on all four limbs, spines were growing out of his back, and he had mandibles and whiskers around his jaw.

He said, "The original gods were the first beings in existence, consisting of balls of highly condensed energy. They developed in The Void, now the place where the souls of deceased beings go. After 5 cycles, there were 100 gods. No more formed after that. After 5 million cycles, one of the gods managed to get out of The Void and discovered that there was nothing outside of it. By then, The Void was practically filled to the brim with what you call 'life force'. The original gods took the unnecessary 'life force' out of The Void and put it into The Nothingness. That 'life force' developed into existence, and we merely made it possible."

7 had no idea why he was telling her this, but she couldn't help but listen to him. She said, "How long is a cycle?"

"Roughly a full day in your world. Now, the existence that developed from that initial 'life force' was referred to as the first Existence Era by the original gods. They gave themselves titles based on what part of existence was most similar to him or her. The original gods, along with their descendants, maintained the balance between the various forces in existence, using methods from as subtle as inspiring a single being to as blatant as outright interference. And since there were a lot of living beings throughout most of the Existence Era, there was always something for us to do. It never got boring. Eventually, however, life began to die off, and what life was left was doomed. We tried to fix it multiple times, but whatever we tried didn't hold together for long. Eventually, we realized that the 'life force' that made up existence had become unstable. It was not meant to be out there, it was meant to be in The Void!" At that point, the being had doubled in size, his voice was beginning to sound very unnatural, and he looked like a monster. His eyes were in such sharp contrast to the rest of his body, 7 had a hard time looking at his eyes for long.

The being looked up at the only source of light in the room and continued. "So we opened a portal to The Void and sucked all of existence back into The Void. After 5,000 cycles, we released 'life force' back into The Nothingness. The second Existence Era began, and it eventually ended like the first. We did the same thing again. This went on for a long time…until exactly 5 million cycles after the beginning of the tenth Existence Era. Something happened that would change the fate of all Existence Eras and the beings that lived in them."

At that point, he had grown so large, he had to hold 7 on one of his newly-formed tentacles to avoid running the risk of crushing her. 7 was terrified, but she couldn't stop listening to him. She couldn't see what his body looked like, either.

The being said, "One of the original gods, the one that called himself the God of Evil, discovered, by accident, how to strip the other original gods of their power. It could be just as easily restored, but the God of Evil didn't plan on keeping it a secret." He looked 7 in the eyes. "Being evil, he couldn't resist using this discovery to strip some of the original gods he hated the most of their power. Those gods, with the help of their allies, managed to get their power back and told the other gods of what the God of Evil had done to them and how. Now, the original gods actually consist of balls of extremely condensed energy. We never found out what would happen if a mortal were to be exposed to our true forms, but the good gods were unwilling to find out. As such, we had to take on physical forms. In those forms, a crystal formed somewhere on the god's body, most commonly the forehead. Although incredibly difficult, it turned out to be possible to remove those crystals, and almost all of the god's power went with it."

"The God of Evil eventually discovered that, in this weakened state, a god could be killed almost as easily as a mortal. Needless to say, this was quite shocking to all of us, the notion that it was possible for an original god to die. We tried to stop him, but even when most of us combined our powers together, it wasn't possible to stop him. In fact, that action led to all but ten of the original gods either dead or stripped of their powers. By the end of the tenth Existence Era, the only original gods left were the God of Evil and the gods that had never tried to stop him, who all just so happened to be the least powerful of the gods, along with one god who had been stripped of its powers who didn't reincarnate. Not sure who it was, though. Might've been Glut, the leader. The gods that had managed to escape with their lives, but not with their powers, had reincarnated themselves in an effort to get a chance to regain their powers. Of course, they would've been reincarnated anyway if they had been killed. As for how you fit into this…"

By then, 7 really wanted to get away, but she couldn't leave until the god wanted her to. The room was also extremely dark. The only light came from the god's eyes, and they were as bright as strobe lights.

"7…do you know of the soul of a human named Athena?"

7 really didn't care what he was talking about and she really wanted to get out of there, but she had no choice. "No."

The god smiled. "Actually, you do. She simply has yet to tell you her name. She's going to be very important to you someday."

"How so?"

"You'll see."

Suddenly, 7 heard somebody screaming, and this time, it sounded like somebody she did know. It sounded like 8…

The screaming came again, and 7's eyes opened. It had just been a dream. And yet…

8 screamed again, and this time, the twins ran out of the room. 7 followed them soon after. They came into the main room just in time to see 1 stumble out of 8's room and groggily say, "He's definitely delusional." 1 then fell to the ground, nobody else being near enough to catch him.

2 picked him up and 7 went back to her room. She was tired. When she was in bed, she tried to get back to sleep, but 8's screaming and moaning, along with the soft, fluttering sensations in her stomach, made it hard for her to totally fall asleep. 7 knew that it was going to be a long night.

**Author's note: Sorry I haven't updated for so long! Lack of interest…**

**Just so you all know, from a bit past the start of 7's dream sequence onwards, I wrote the chapter while having a cold. I hope it isn't obvious. (Though I did recently rewrite a part of it while NOT being sick.)**

**Also, if, the last time you read chapter 5 of this story, I went on a long explanation of the various tribes, you can stop reading here. If I didn't, however, you better reread that chapter as I have also changed how Keith is introduced to the story and I have introduced another character.**


	13. Visions

After 2 put 1 back on his throne, 9 said, "What does he mean by 'delusional'?"

2 said, "8's seeing and apparently hearing things that aren't actually there."

8 screamed again.

2 said, "Hopefully, we won't have to stay up all night."

8's screams were quite unnerving for 6 (and he had good reason to be). He wished that 5 was in the room.

8 screamed and moaned again. 6 couldn't help but wonder what exactly 8, in his delirium, was seeing. Hopefully, he wouldn't remember it.

Suddenly, 6 froze. He was having another one of his visions. A skeletal-looking dark wolf with pure red eyes was running through the rain with a noticeable urgency. 7 was on its back, holding onto it tightly with one hand and her other arm around a limp, unmoving stitchpunk (7 was obscuring his number and 6 couldn't see his face). The stitchpunk was feebly trying to hold onto the wolf with one hand, the other claw-like hand hanging down limply; apparently he was injured and weak because of it. There were only three sounds; the torrential rain hitting the ground, the sounds the wolf made as it ran as fast as it could to its destination, and…and…a horrendous gasping sound, the kind made by one who is weak and dying. That sound was coming from the stitchpunk 7 was clinging onto. It was too dark for 6 to be able to tell what color the stitchpunk's skin was (though it was clearly not 6, 3, 4, or 8). The fact that the rain was making it even harder to see didn't help. The limp stitchpunk had a very faint blue glow…

6 snapped out of his vision. He immediately picked up a piece of paper and began drawing what he had seen. He was concentrating so hard on drawing, he found it moderately easy to ignore 8's cries. Every few moments, 6 and only 6 could hear a single heartbeat. But the only heart any of the stitchpunks had was a metaphorical one. 6 knew what it was… Even after 100 years, he could still hear it… In fact, the heartbeat was how he knew that it had been 100 years…

Insert story breaker here

5 quietly said, "I still don't think we should be here."

Pleather, whom 5 had been told nothing about, quietly said, "We've been here for two hours, and I've been here several times for much longer. I think the chances of us being noticed up here are quite slim."

"I hope you're right."

On the first day of the festival, before 5 had gotten back to the others, he had encountered Pleather. She seemed to like him (he could tell because when she had seen him, she squealed about how cute he was). On the third day of the festival (AKA earlier that day), she told him about a secret passageway in the factory that led to an alcove near the ceiling of the Fabrication Machine's chamber that overlooked the chamber. The passageway had two entrances: one was directly connected to the (clean) sewage pipes under the town, while the other was located just outside the factory.

5 had agreed to come with her and go with her through the passageway through the sewer to see the Fabrication Machine…even though he had been really scared about going. Of course, his fear was quite reasonable.

Pleather, on the other hand, wasn't scared at all. In fact, it was exciting. She loved to watch the machines milling about, doing their version of a daily life. But what she loved to watch most of all was the Fabrication Machine. It was always doing something worth watching.

5 looked around at the various machines in the chamber. The Cat Beast was lying down on a small platform, asleep, the Winged Beast (whom had been rebuilt) was apparently on sentry duty, the Owl Beast was apparently talking to a Spiderbot, 5 had caught a glimpse of a wolf-like Beast, and a snake-like machine (it definitely wasn't the Seamstress; this one had no fabric on it, it was only three feet long, and its head looked like the Winged Beast's) seemed to be staring directly at them…

5 quietly said, "Uh, Pleather?"

"Yes?"

"I think that one's staring at us…"

"Where?"

5 pointed to it. Pleather said, "That one's new."

Pleather wasn't sure if it was staring at them or at something else, but better safe than sorry.

Pleather said, "Let's go." She picked 5 up in her left hand and her wooden bat in the other and went through the passageway that led to the sewers.

When they got out of the sewers, Pleather looked back at the factory and said, "Normally, in a situation like that, I'd stay until I actually got noticed. I was never afraid to take risks; I could afford to make them." She looked down. "But I have a good reason to be careful nowadays…" She shook her head and smiled. "Sorry. You can go home now."

5, after a few moments, headed back to the cathedral, smiling as he left.

Pleather headed to the caravans, hoping to snag a few apples. Everybody was inside their caravan, so Pleather was able to get to the caravans that stored the food easily. After grabbing twenty apples, she headed back to the house she had set up in. Along the way, she spotted the infertile annodite queen heading back towards the caravans. Surprised, Pleather followed it. Along the way, she ate up one of the apples.

Keith had set up a sort of tent not too far from the caravans. Upon seeing that that was where the annodite queen was heading, Pleather became quite curious as to why it was here. Staying twenty feet away from the tent, Pleather watched the annodite queen go into Keith's bag.

To Pleather's surprise, there was a flash of light from the bag. What she saw after that made her jaw drop open. What she saw after THAT almost made her burst out laughing.

Insert story breaker here

2 said, "So you think the Scorpion's sting is what's causing his fever?"

6 said, "Yes."

"…I think you're right…"

Insert story breaker here

8 was terrified. A bizarre creature that he had never seen before was attacking him. It had no eyes at all, its skin was completely black, it had frighteningly sharp claws, it had fleshy frills on its torso that made only the front of the creature visible, and its teeth looked like razors.

Well, it hadn't actually attacked him yet, but it continually swiped at him with its claws while singing a bizarre song that wasn't in any language 8 knew of.

8 had tried to attack it, but he had no weapon, and he felt too weak to move much. He had tried to punch it, but it easily got out of the way. He had managed to hit it once, though (he knew this because he felt his fist make contact and it had cried out).

8 knew he couldn't take much more of this. He felt increasingly weak and the creature was bound to start attacking him sooner or later.

Eventually, he stopped, too tired to go on. The creature realized this and started attacking. The creature slashed at him and smashed him between its front paws. He couldn't really feel any of it, though. He continually yelled and cried out for help. Several minutes later, though, nobody had come. The creature smacked him in the face…and this time, he REALLY felt it.

Suddenly, the creature was gone. It was dark, but he wasn't in the cave anymore. The next thing he was aware of was that he felt terrible. He could barely think and he felt so tired, he thought he was going to pass out. He was also lying down.

8 looked to the right and saw something that looked like 7 standing next to him…then he basically passed out.

Insert story breaker here

Pleather said, "So your name's Nathan?"

The old man next to her nodded.

Pleather smiled, extended her hand, and sweetly said, "Nice to meet you, Nathan. My name's Pleather."

The old man, Nathan, smiled and shook her hand. After the handshake, Pleather offered him an apple. He took it.

Pleather took a bite of her apple and, when she had swallowed, said, "Beautiful night, isn't it?"

Nathan nodded. When he had swallowed, he said, "Why are you out this late?"

"A night outing with a special someone."

"I see."

Nathan wasn't surprised. Pleather's shiny and neat (as in organized) hair and her emerald green eyes made her look very pretty, and her sweet voice and good manners were charming. Her dress, which was in a Sweet Lolita fashion, seemed to reflect this.

"Hey, look at the moon."

Nathan looked. The moon was quickly being eclipsed. After a few minutes, the moon was completely eclipsed and turned red.

Nathan somewhat slowly said, "A total lunar eclipse…and a total solar eclipse…on the same day…"

Pleather jokingly said, "I wonder what the chances of that are."

"Very, very small."

Insert story breaker here

9 was the only stitchpunk still awake. After 7 had slapped 8, which ended up breaking him out of his delirium, 8 had fallen asleep and it had become much quieter, allowing everybody to get back to sleep. 9, however, hadn't felt the least bit tired. He (strangely) felt very anxious.

9 gazed up at the red moon, which was visible through the clock face. Suddenly, for the second time that day, he felt very faint…

Insert story breaker here

The Fabrication Machine was bored. He had made hundreds of Spiderbots and Seekers over the past few hours, along with a few other machines. He wished that something interesting would happen.

_Hey… Hey you…_

The Machine, startled, looked around. Who said that?

Suddenly, he wasn't in the factory anymore. Surprised and confused, he looked around, trying to figure out where he was.

He was in a cavern where the walls and ceiling were an interesting shade of brown. The floor, which was the same color, was very squishy and wet. In fact, the Machine started to sink into it.

The cavern was lit by several torches attached to the walls. He couldn't see where they connected to the wall, though.

The most interesting thing in the cavern was a humongous pile of garbage that was three feet shorter than the Machine and about as wide as it. The pile of garbage consisted of just about everything that could be considered garbage. There were rusted pieces of metal, tattered furniture, scraps of paper, useless appliances, a broken wrecking ball, bones, food scraps, plastic objects, rotten pieces of wood, feathers, numerous safes, broken construction equipment…and even a kitchen sink.

And then it blinked. The pile of garbage had two very large yellow eyes with cat-like pupils that were set rather far apart, on the sides of its body (but still looking forward).

It then began talking. "Hello, Monstralio… No, I shouldn't call you that. You…never mind. You'd have no idea what I was talking about."

The Fabrication Machine said, "A talking pile of garbage…"

"Oh, I'm not made of garbage. This is just a sort of armor."

"…"

"…"

"Who are you, where am I, and what am I standing in?"

"To answer your questions in order, my name is Westroliphio, I'm not going to bother explaining where we are, and I think you'd rather not know."

"Answer my last question."

"Seriously, I think you'd rather not know."

"I command you to tell me!"

"Well…what's brown, squishy, and doesn't naturally come from the planet?"

"…I don't know."

"Too bad, 'cause that's all I'm going to tell you. Anyway, what has transpired during your lifetime that you remember?"

"…"

"Go on, tell me."

"…Why?"

"Because that's the reason I brought you here."

"…Very well."

The Fabrication Machine then told Westroliphio everything it could remember from the moment he was "born" to when 9 killed him.

"The ragdoll ran straight up to me and stood there. When I realized that it was giving itself up, I was honestly impressed. I tried to kill it, but when I opened my eye, not only had I ended up absorbing the soul of a completely different ragdoll, but the other ragdoll had somehow managed to take my Talisman! And if there's one thing I can't stand, it's being tricked like that! …Unfortunately, though, the ragdoll had somehow figured out how to activate the Talisman. After it stole my souls, I felt an immense pain in my body…and then…and then…something happened after that, but…I can't remember what."

Westroliphio stared at him. Then his mouth dropped open, revealing a number of things to the Fabrication Machine. One, his mouth was so big, it took up almost his entire body, two, the inside of his mouth was a yellowish green color, three, he had no tongue, four, his eight teeth were as yellow as corn, and five, his uvula moved very easily.

Westroliphio said, "Okay… I think I've heard enough about your past for now. Say…does the name 'Karaoliphomio' sound familiar?"

"…I don't think so…"

"Well, watch out for him and his followers. He somehow escaped from his imprisonment 100 years ago and we still have no idea how he got out, especially since nobody would be ignorant enough to free him of their own will. As for his appearance, he's huge, he's completely black, his anatomy is bizarre to say the least, and his eyes are just pinpoints of light. Most of his followers have pure black skin and pinpoints of light for eyes as well, but there are several who still have color in them who are trying to get to the point where they look like that. You'll be able to tell who those are by their highly unnatural appearance. Of course, said appearance is only when they are in Voidspace…"

"Why does he have such a long name?"

"I'd tell you, but it would be pointless to do so. And with that…"

The Machine was back in the factory.

**Author's note: I'm going to stop here because I want to. Also, everything I put in this story is, in some way, relevant, meaning that I won't go on a long explanation about something that has nothing to do with the story. Also, you might be able to tell, but I have a very active imagination. I've always had that.**


	14. Gladdys' hatred

Boris said, _"So Sparrow, what's your life story?"_

Sparrow said, _"M-my life story?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Well… My whole life, I've been in love with someone named Serin. We knew each other since infancy. One day, though…we were separated from our family, our home, and each other by a…very powerful being. Eventually, we found each other again and went off to defeat the being. I…was separated from Serin before we could get to him, but she defeated him by herself. We were reunited exactly 10 weeks later with both each other and our families, but that only lasted 5 days. I was captured by…some group (I don't remember what they called themselves) and imprisoned in their world. In order to get out, I had to join them. When I was finally reunited with Serin a long time later, our old enemy was trying to reassemble his forces. Fortunately for us and the place we were in at the time, one of his former henchmen…convinced him to stop for good. When that happened, I thought that I would finally be able to be with Serin forever. And then…we met…Coranzinto's master…"_

Sparrow shivered.

Boris said, _"Coranzinto?"_

"_Er, did I just say his name?"_

"_Yes."_

"…"

"_What happened after you met his master?"_

"_Huh? Oh. When I saw Coran's master…I…I…I swear, I'd never been so scared in my life. He kidnapped Serin and I haven't seen or heard any trace of her since."_

"_I see. It must've been hard for you."_

"_You have no idea. I love Serin so much, I…I would do anything for her… I HAVE done almost everything for her..."_

"_What was the name of Coran's master?"_

Sparrow gulped. _"His name was…was…was…"_

"_Spit it out!"_

"_Karaoliphomio!"_

The moment he said that, all of the animals in the cathedral became silent at stared at Sparrow. Chills went up Boris' spine, even though he knew he had never heard that name before…

Sparrow, noticing the stares, quietly said, _"Looks like it's still forbidden to say his name…"_

8's wolf said, _"Why did you say that? You'll bring misfortune to everyone in this world."_

"_I'm sorry, Martin. I just…I…"_

Suddenly, a large feather came out of nowhere and landed on Sparrow's nose. He grabbed the feather and took a careful look at it. From its structure, it appeared to be a down feather. It was purple and it was very clean and shiny. The shaft, at the connecting end, was a thin point.

Boris said, _"What is that?"_

Sparrow stared at the feather for several moments before saying, _"I don't know…"_

He then stuck the end of the feather between two scales behind his ears. It fit perfectly. Suddenly, Sparrow's ears perked up, as though he had heard something. He suddenly dashed towards the cathedral entrance, failing to notice Boris following him.

Insert story breaker here

Stacy sat in an alley between two crumbling buildings, panting. She hadn't bothered trying to go home; Gladdys would punish her for anything that came into her mind. Stacy cursed herself under her breath. If it wasn't for the fact that Stacy (along with Brutus and their mother) was a VERY fast healer and never got scars from anything, she could've used those scars as proof that Gladdys was abusing her (though Gladdys' punishments had gotten a lot harsher when she found out about Stacy's ability).

Stacy put a hand on her chest as she briefly got an uncomfortable feeling in the area. It had been happening ever since she had had that weird dream 7 days ago.

In the dream, a bizarre-looking, dog-sized creature (who, unbeknownst to Stacy, looked exactly like the one in 8's hallucination) with a tutu-like frill around its waist was gracefully dancing around her, sweeping its tail, head, and limbs in a beautiful and artistic way. Stacy had quickly gone from staring at it in confusion to staring at it in awe.

When the creature was done dancing, it apparently looked at her (it had no eyes) and, in a very child-like voice, said, "Did I dance good, mama?"

Stacy had immediately woken up afterwards. Over the course of that day, she developed strange symptoms; a sore throat, slight nausea, increased congestion, and extreme hunger. In fact, she had gotten so hungry, she tried multiple times to steal food (since Gladdys never gave her that much). Gladdys caught her every time and punished her with increasing harshness. Stacy didn't bother telling anyone as Gladdys had threatened her.

However, the day Stacy met the stitchpunks, more symptoms had appeared; shortness of breath, exhaustion, nosebleeds, and chest pains. Those symptoms had gotten progressively worse. Again, Stacy hadn't bothered to tell anyone. Gladdys would've stopped her and punished her if she tried (she knew this because she had actually tried once).

Presently, as Stacy thought about how Gladdys had treated her all her life, she realized just how much she hated Gladdys. Stacy stood up, determined to go to Sam, the Intell doctor, and tell him what had been happening to her.

After only a few minutes, she was at the Scientist's house. When she got there, however, she stopped. The pain in her chest suddenly became far worse than it had ever been. Stacy could barely keep herself from screaming as she put her hand on her chest. Stacy gasped for air, feeling like she couldn't breathe.

The pain quickly became so intense, Stacy could barely stand up. Darkness appeared on the edges of her vision and Stacy was truly having difficulty breathing. Another wave of pain swept through her and she finally collapsed, maintaining enough control over herself to ensure that she fell onto her back.

Lying on her back, barely able to move or breathe and with no idea of what was happening, Stacy felt truly panicked and afraid. She briefly wondered if the pain she felt was as much as giving birth. Suddenly, it felt like something in her chest was moving…

A final wave of agony swept through her chest, and this time, it was more than enough to make her unleash a horrendous, banshee-like scream.

The pain lasted for only a few seconds. After that, it got very slightly better. Stacy gasped as she felt a strange pressure get off of her lungs. Stacy laid there for several moments, staring into the night sky, before lifting her head so she could see her chest. What she saw made her gasp in horror.

Stacy laid there for several minutes, staring in shock at the creature on her chest. The creature had no eyes and had a tutu-like frill around its waist (although it hardly looked like the creature in her dream). Finally, Stacy grabbed the creature in her right hand and tore it off her chest so that she could see what had happened.

When Stacy saw her chest, for the first time in her life, she felt truly glad that she had her ability. The creature, meanwhile, was nuzzling its head against Stacy's neck. As Stacy turned her head to look at the creature, she realized that it looked oddly cute. It made her think of 7 and her unborn baby…

Insert story breaker here

The night was silent and peaceful. After a while, there were some footsteps, but they didn't last long. She was glad that it was so peaceful. Peace allowed her to sleep well (not that it was hard for her to do so already). Where she was, it was warm and dark and safe. She loved it. Of course, it was the only thing she knew of. That, and the numerous voices she kept hearing. For a long time, it had been just two voices, but not that long ago, it had become many more. She wanted to see what the source of the voices was, especially the two she had heard for so long (though this desire was more instinctual; she didn't actually know what sight was; her only visual memory was of darkness).

Of course, she had no choice but to wait. She squirmed around a little before settling down and curling up tighter. She drifted off to sleep, her mind filled with the countless voices and sounds she had heard…

Insert story breaker here

7 groggily opened her eyes. She could hardly remember ever being so tired, even during the early stages of her pregnancy. She was so tired, she went back to sleep. After a while, though, she woke up again. It was very quiet. Almost too quiet. 7 grabbed her skull helmet and put it on. She found it slightly more difficult than usual to get up, but she didn't pay much attention to it. She also felt slightly "heavy", but that feeling had been present for the last month or so (and had gotten increasingly noticeable).

Upon entering the throne room, 7 could tell by the amount of light that it was at least mid-morning. She was astounded. She couldn't remember if she had ever slept so long.

Looking around, 7 saw 6 in his corner, drawing again.

6, sensing her but not looking at her, said, "You've been asleep for a while."

7 said, "Where are the others?"

"They went off to find 5, I think."

"Ah."

"…Stay here, 7. I don't think you should go out today…"

"I wasn't planning on doing so."

Suddenly, there was a loud crash that came from the storage area, immediately catching 7 and 6's attention. After several moments, 7 slowly walked toward the storage area, failing to notice that 6, who had gotten a side view of her, was now staring directly at her.

7 cautiously turned the corner to the small storage area. She immediately saw the cause of the crash; several metal objects had fallen to the ground. 7 was about to start cleaning it up when she noticed something move. Suddenly, four small red lights, all in a row, appeared in the near-darkness. 7, instantly realizing what it was, practically jumped back and let out a small scream, surprised that a machine had managed to get in their home without being noticed.

The eyes didn't move. In fact, the machine didn't make a sound. It just stared at her.

7, her eyes still somewhat used to the dark, could make out the general shape of the machine; a scorpion. 7 waited for it to move, or at least do something. It continued to just stare at her, showing no signs of hostility at all (although 7 was out of its immediate range).

The Scorpion cocked its head to one side and motioned one of its claws at her. Realizing what the gesture meant, 7 looked down at herself…and almost instinctively put her hands on her stomach.

7's abdomen was now noticeably distended.

She stared at her stomach for a full minute before looking back at the Scorpion. It looked at her expectantly.

7 said, "I'm…not sure how to explain it to you…"

The Scorpion's eyes half-closed and it laid down, bored. 7 was very surprised that it hadn't even tried to attack her. It was so uncharacteristic of them.

Suddenly, 6 came running towards her, saying, "Hide!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the Scorpion. He seemed truly terrified.

Before 7 could say anything, she suddenly heard Gladdys' loud and grating voice saying, "Hello? Is that b**** 7 in here?"

Insert story breaker here

9 sighed. He and most of the others had been searching for 5 for hours with no luck whatsoever. In fact, for the last half-hour or so, he had been separated from the others. At this point, he was completely and utterly lost.

Armed with only his light staff, he felt rather defenseless. After all, if, say, the Owl Beast attacked him, he wouldn't exactly be able to do much about it.

He missed 7. She had been sleeping when he left and, upon seeing her distended abdomen, did not feel compelled to wake her up.

Suddenly, he heard somebody come up from behind him. He turned around…and what he saw rendered him speechless. It was Stacy, and she wasn't wearing a shirt.

Stacy said, "9! What are you doing here?"

9 said, "Uh…"

"You're looking for 5, aren't you?"

"Yes…"

"I just found out that Gladdys kidnapped him last night."

"…"

"…And she just kidnapped 7 and 6 and she's planning on sacrificing all three of them to the Fabrication Machine."

"…What?"

"Come on. I'll explain it on the way."

She grabbed 9, put him on her shoulder, and started running towards the factory.

9 said, "How do you know that's what she wants to do?"

Stacy said, "She said it. That woman is way too talkative for her own good."

"Why would she do that?"

"Gladdys has some really weird beliefs. She thinks that children should be seen and not heard and that pregnancy is shameful and disgusting. I've lived with her for years and I still don't understand her."

"Why are you not wearing a shirt?"

"I have just one shirt and I got it pretty badly torn last night."

"What happened?"

"…I'd rather not tell you."

It took them five minutes to get to the factory. Several Seekers were patrolling the area (which, needless to say, made 9 very nervous). About half of them noticed Stacy running at high speed towards the factory. They didn't raise the alarm.

Upon entering the factory through the main entrance, the first thing 9 noticed were the countless, bored-looking machines lying around. The first thing Stacy noticed was Gladdys, who was a mere ten feet away.

"Gladdys!"

Gladdys whirled around. She was holding 5, 6, and 7 in her hands. 5 and 7 were unconscious. Stacy's outcry also caught the attention of all the machines in the room, making 9 even more nervous.

Gladdys snorted, smirked, and slowly began to back away. Stacy went towards her at the same pace.

Stacy said, "Well, Gladdys, you've done some pretty immoral and stupid stuff in the past, but this takes the cake."

Gladdys, in her normal loud, nasal, and grating voice and tone, said, "Why are you not wearing a shirt? It's disgusting and degrading."

"The only shirt that you ever let me have, I accidentally tore it very badly last night and I didn't have time to get another."

As the distance between Stacy and the entrance increased, some of the machines started to move in front of the entrance, blocking off the only way out.

Gladdys said, "Careless as usual. I swear, I should –"

Stacy said, "Shut it, Gladdys. I'm tired of hearing your voice. I'm tired of everything about you. Your voice, your appearance, your personality, your manners, your lack of morals, your arrogance, your abuse of me, and you! My parents weren't the best, but compared to you, they were excellent. They never starved me, they never beat me, they never made me sleep somewhere cold, and…god, I miss them."

Gladdys sneered. "What makes you think that? I thought you hated them."

"More than once, I confused what they did to me with what you did to me. By the way, would you say that I look just like my mother, your fraternal twin sister?"

"…I will admit, you do look exactly like Karin…but that hardly matters."

By now, the two women were standing in the middle of the room, completely surrounded by machines. The women didn't notice, but 9 sure as heck did. He was especially terrified by the fact that the Cat Beast, the Owl Beast, and the Winged Beast were among the crowd. There were several other machines in the crowd that 9 had never seen before. Some of them looked like animals, some of them looked like a combination of animals, and some of them 9 had no idea what they were supposed to look like.

All of them were looking at Gladdys and Stacy with morbid interest.

Suddenly, Gladdys stopped. Stacy stopped as well. But it wasn't because they had noticed the machines.

Stacy said, "Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't…but that's not important now. Why are you here?"

Gladdys said, "To get rid of a disgusting and immodest b****."

Stacy's eyes widened, appalled. "I wouldn't exactly call 7 'modest', but she is a long way from being immodest! And when are you going to realize that, nowadays, most women who get pregnant technically aren't married? Oh wait, that's right. Never."

All of the machines looked at Stacy. Then at 7. Then back to Stacy. Then several of them began laughing (or at least it seemed like laughing), finally catching the attention of the two women.

Gladdys yelled, "Stop laughing! Laughing is –"

Stacy yelled, "Let them laugh, Gladdys. It's a lot less grating than your voice." Ironically, Stacy was right.

Upon realizing just how many machines were surrounding them, Stacy though, _oh sh**, what did I just do?_

The machines that weren't laughing either had their jaw hanging open (if they had one), attempted to show a humorous expression, or convinced themselves that Stacy wasn't being serious or was mistaken.

Gladdys said, "I hope you're proud of yourself for getting their attention, Stacy!"

Stacy said, "You think that I'M responsible for getting us into this? You're the one who came here in the first place!"

"You didn't have to follow me like a –"

"SHUT UP!"

All of the machines went silent.

"Gladdys, I came here because I wasn't about to let you sacrifice any of them, especially 7! And what on earth makes you think that you can just walk in here just because you want to?"

"They have no reason to kill me. I have three sacrifices for them."

"…You honestly think that that ALONE would incline them to spare you."

"Of course! Nobody is THAT ungrateful!"

9 and Stacy stared at her, appalled by her arrogance and stupidity. Several of the machines laughed at it.

When the machines had quieted down, Stacy said, "You…you…oh my god, you're so stupid."

Gladdys snorted.

Suddenly, an odd-sounding male voice from the crowd said, "Quite a rivalry, eh?"

The two women and the conscious stitchpunks turned towards the voice. Out of the crowd came a frighteningly humanoid machine, although the only part of it that was actually human was its jaw.

Stacy said, "What?"

The humanoid machine said, "It seems as though there is a significant rivalry between you two. It would be quite interesting to see how a fight to the death would turn out." It turned to the other machines. "Wouldn't you agree?" All of the machines nodded.

Stacy said, "You can TALK?"

The humanoid machine said, "Yes, I can talk. Anyway, what do you think about being able to have a fight to the death with that woman?"

Stacy looked at Gladdys. Gladdys looked extremely nervous. Stacy broke into a malicious grin.

Stacy slyly said, "I think rather highly of it."

Gladdys nervously said, "Um…if we're going to fight to the death, can we do it somewhere a little MORE dangerous?"

The humanoid machine said, "Of course. The stakes shall be this: if the half-naked girl wins, she and the ragdolls, unharmed, go free. If the loud woman wins, she goes free and we get the ragdolls."

Stacy, still smiling, said, "Deal."

Gladdys somewhat hesitantly nodded.

The humanoid machine said, "Very well. In the meantime, though, we shall hold into the ragdolls."

Suddenly, a wolf-like machine went up to Stacy, reared up, and grabbed 9 in its jaws. 9 didn't get a chance to see which machines took 5, 6, or 7.

The humanoid machine said, "Now, if you ladies will just follow me…" He then went off deeper into the factory, the women and several machines following.

9 had no idea why the machines had opted to do this instead of just taking them and killing them, but he didn't fully care. He just hoped that Stacy would win and that the machines would keep their word.

**Author's note: Just so you all know, the first part of this chapter is more for the benefit of the people who have read my previous stories (AKA my parents). Please review, guys. If I don't get reviews, I don't feel like people appreciate my work.**

**On a note completely unrelated to anything in this story, I saw The Hunger Games this morning (4\29\12) and boy, was it a good movie.**

**Finally, I'm done with this chapter!**


	15. Stacy's pleasure

The humanoid machine led them through a part of the factory that 9 had never seen before. They were currently being led through a hallway that looked very roughly cut.

Stacy said, "Where are we?"

The humanoid machine said, "We dug this hallway so that we could have a place to fight without the Fabrication Machine knowing about it."

"Why would you not want him to know?"

"Well…he doesn't exactly want us physically fighting amongst ourselves, and we're not allowed to go outside unless he says so, so we get quite bored and the only way we could come up with to entertain ourselves was by watching others fighting."

"Why does he not want you guys fighting each other?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why are you not allowed to go outside unless told otherwise?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"I'm not allowed to."

"Why not?"

"I'm just not. Now stop asking those questions."

Stacy went silent and remained so until they got to the underground arena.

The humanoid machine said, "Impressive, isn't it?"

Stacy said, "It is."

The arena consisted of a large platform, spectator stands to the right of said platform, and, a few inches below the level of the platform, a pit of very large, very fast, and very sharp-looking gears.

The humanoid machine looked at Gladdys and said, "Is this dangerous enough for you?"

Gladdys looked at the gears and said, "Yes." In Gladdys' mind, in spite of Stacy's ability, she would die if she fell into the gears.

Stacy grinned. The gears made it possible for Gladdys to die just as Stacy wanted: gruesomely and painfully. And she didn't have to worry about falling in for two reasons; one, her special ability, and two, if she fell in, the creature she had "met" the previous night would save the stitchpunks. She was sure of this not only because it was more than capable of taking down numerous machines at once, but because she and the creature could communicate telepathically, and the creature had secretly followed them into the factory.

Upon seeing the gears, a sense of dread swept through 9. He was fairly confident that Gladdys was much better at fighting than Stacy was, and the gears guaranteed death if one fell in. To 9, there seemed to be no chance that Stacy could win.

The machines piled onto the stands, the number of which frightened 9. There were so many, most of the machines were piled on top of each other. The machines holding the stitchpunks sat in the front row, though 9 still couldn't see the machines with the other stitchpunks.

The humanoid machine set the women in the center of the platform and handed a three-foot wooden pole with rounded ends to each one.

Stacy looked at the machine questioningly.

The machine said, "We don't want you to kill each other too quickly."

"Ah."

The humanoid machine stepped towards the spectators. The women each got into a fighting stance.

Gladdys' plan was simple: beat Stacy into the pit. However, not long after the machine said, "GO!" Gladdys, even with her mindset, realized that it might've been a better idea to try to avoid getting into a fight with Stacy.

Almost immediately after the machine started the fight, Stacy had jabbed Gladdys in the chest with the end of the pole and was now smacking Gladdys with the pole as though she were a baseball. Gladdys tried to block with her pole, but Stacy was surprisingly talented.

Eventually, Gladdys gave up on trying to block the blows and started running around the platform in circles with Stacy chasing her, much to the amusement of the machines.

However, Stacy was faster than Gladdys. She tackled Gladdys' leg, causing her to fall over. Stacy immediately got onto Gladdys' legs to keep her from getting up and began smacking Gladdys with her pole as hard as she could. Gladdys, who had dropped her pole when she fell and with it out of her reach, tried to block the blows with her hands, but even if she had been laying face-up, it wouldn't have made much difference.

It wasn't long before Gladdys went still and her arms dropped to the ground. Stacy immediately stopped her onslaught. When Gladdys didn't move, Stacy smirked, tossed her pole a few feet away, stood up…and had her legs suddenly swept out from under her by Gladdys, who had merely played dead. Stacy had one major flaw: if she fully believed that she had succeeded in doing something, she didn't go back to make sure that it was fully successful; in short, she was a bit arrogant.

Gladdys immediately got up, grabbed Stacy's ankles, and dragged her towards the gears. All of the machines either leaned forward or got higher up, anxious to see Stacy get torn apart by the gears.

Stacy, infuriated at having been tricked so easily, knew that trying to struggle out of Gladdys' grip was absolutely pointless. So she did the only thing she really could; scream as loud as she could, stopping only to take a breath.

She had only been screaming for five seconds when the humanoid machine suddenly jumped in (literally), yanked Stacy's ankles out of Gladdys' hands, and put his hand over Stacy's mouth to stop her screaming.

The machine then motioned to the other machines to go back to the entrance. The Owl Beast and the Cat Beast quickly obeyed.

Stacy yanked the machine's hand off her mouth and said, "You're really worried about the Machine finding out about this aren't you?"

The humanoid machine, in a hushed whisper, said, "Yes, but that's not what I'm concerned about at the moment. Now please be quiet."

Gladdys loudly said, "Well then why are you-"

Stacy immediately got up and punched Gladdys in the face. Gladdys looked at her with an almost incredible amount of hatred in her eyes, took a step back…and fell backwards into the gears. She had failed to realize that she had been standing on the edge of the platform.

She had exactly three seconds to scream before she landed on the gears. What replaced her scream was the sound of crunching, tearing, and grinding. That sound lasted for five seconds. The gears that Gladdys had landed on were now covered in blood, along with a few other gears that were nearby.

9 was glad that it hadn't lasted long. He was rather squeamish of blood.

Nobody saw it, but Stacy had a smile of morbid pleasure on her face. She very softly said, "Goodbye, Gladdys. It was nice to meat you."

Every single one of the machines stared at the entrance to the hallway, clearly terrified. 9 couldn't help but wonder why they were so scared. It had to be another machine. And it had to be one that they all had reason to fear…

Stacy went up to the humanoid machine and quietly said, "What are they so scared of?"

The machine, equally scared, said, "Our second-in-command."

"You have a second-in-command? Since when?"

"Since two hours ago. And he's very aggressive…"

After about thirty seconds, the Cat Beast came down and motioned for Stacy to come.

The humanoid machine said, "All right, girl. Grab the dolls and go! Quickly!"

Stacy quickly got up, grabbed the stitchpunks, and ran to the entrance of the hallway, holding 5 and 6 in her left hand and 7 and 9 in her right. She held 7 and 9 up to her chest so that she wouldn't accidentally squeeze them too hard. 9 put his left arm around 7 to keep her upright as she was still unconscious…and he could hardly resist putting his right hand on 7's distended stomach. Stacy ran to the other entrance to the hallway…and what she saw made her stop. An apparently quadrupedal machine three feet tall at the shoulder and 9 feet long not including its tail was chasing Boris and Sparrow around the room. They had good reason to be afraid of it. And not just because of its large size…

Insert story breaker here

6 struggled to focus on reality. That one vision, that one image that threatened to turn him to total insanity, had returned. The last time it had come was the day before the festival started. And when it came, it took over his mind. That vision would be the only thing he could see, the only thing he could hear, his body would go completely numb, and not even the gentle heartbeat that had allowed him to keep track of the years could snap him out of it.

When it first started coming, it was merely something that would occasionally come up from the back of his mind and stay there for a while. It wasn't bothersome at all. Over the past 100 years, though, it had gotten worse.

The vision was of a massive, bizarre-looking creature that appeared to be twice as large as the Fabrication Machine. Its countless arms swayed up and down like a wave, the only exceptions being two arms larger than the rest that were holding massive black yoyos that were moving up and down at the same speed. When one was at the top, the other was at the bottom. Its large head, supported by a neck longer and thicker than its arms, had an ear-to-ear grin that showcased a set of pure white teeth that were deceptively sharp.

But its general anatomy wasn't what 6 was frightened by. What frightened 6 was that its left eye was larger than the right, it had vertical black and white stripes all over its body, it had hair on the top of its head, and the claws on its hands looked vaguely like pen nibs. In short, it resembled 6.

_It WAS 6._

No, he thought. It wasn't him. It wasn't him… And yet…he knew it was. It had been so for the last 100 years…

6 went limp in Stacy's hand, all his senses turning inward to the image in his mind, completely oblivious to the fact that Stacy was now outside…

Insert story breaker here

Boris, panting, said, "That…was…a close one."

Stacy, riding on his back and having gotten over her adrenaline rush, said, "I agree."

Sparrow, also panting and with the feather still stuck in the scales behind his ear, nodded.

The threesome had run from the factory all the way to the town (albeit a part of the town the stitchpunks had never been in).

Stacy got off Boris and set the stitchpunks down on a nearby piece of rubble. Upon seeing 6, however, she held onto him.

9 continued to hold onto 7, who was still unconscious. He did, however, go over to 5 when he started to wake up.

5 said, "Ow… That hurt…"

Suddenly, somebody behind them said, "Stacy." She turned around. It was Nolan.

Nolan said, "Would you come with me, please?"

Stacy, getting an idea of why he was asking that, put 6 next to the other stitchpunks, stood up, and followed Nolan. He took her to a metal box in a secluded alley forty feet away. He took off the lib and Stacy looked in…and recoiled in disgust.

She took another look and said, "Geez. Why is my brother so disgusting? Wait a second… Why did he put animal…" And then she noticed something in the somewhat deep pile of mess that didn't seem to belong. She reached in, pulled it out…and immediately realized that it was 2.

Stacy, disgusted that her brother did something like this, said, "Nolan, would you mind getting Anthony and Kathleen? They know how to handle this."

Nolan nodded and went off towards the cathedral, taking the other stitchpunks with him.

Stacy sighed and said, "There's something really wrong with Brutus, right?"

2, who was still very conscious, nodded weakly.

Stacy said, "Yeah, I really need to do something about him. Least I don't have to worry about Gladdys anymore."

Suddenly, both of them heard somebody opera-singing. It sounded like Brutus. Stacy sighed. She knew that there was no point in trying to get him to stop. 2 cringed and put his hands on the sides of his head, trying to block out the singing to no avail. Stacy sighed again.

Insert story breaker here

The first thing Nolan, the stitchpunks (7 had woken up several minutes earlier), Boris, and Sparrow noticed upon entering the cathedral was that all of the animals were staring in the direction of the giant cobras. The second thing they noticed was that Anthony, Kathleen, Heather, Alice, Keith, 1, 8, 3, and 4 were standing, with their jaws hanging open, in front of a bunch of male giant cobras (they knew they were male because male giant cobras were smaller and less scary than females) that were being very "active" over a female (though they couldn't see the female).

After several moments, Anthony said, "I think they like you!" 9 couldn't help but chuckle when he said that.

Nolan walked up to Keith, handed the stitchpunks to him, looked back at the snakes, and said, "What's this?"

Keith, surprised, said, "Um… It's…" Then he noticed 6. "What's with 6?"

Nolan said, "I don't know. Say, is that a machine?"

The conscious stitchpunks immediately looked at the snakes. Sure enough, the snakes were being "active" over a machine, and it didn't take them long to recognize which one. It was the Seamstress. And it had absolutely no idea what the snakes were doing.

Boris said, "'Like you', indeed."

The Seamstress looked at Boris and said, _"What are they doing?"_

Boris said, "They're, um...attempting to mate with you…"

When he said that, 7 couldn't help but laugh.

The Seamstress, shocked, said, _"They're __**WHAT?**__"_

The Seamstress flopped onto the ground. _"I came here to find the stitchpunks. Instead I found a bunch of snakes that want to mate with me. This is humiliating on a number of levels."_

Sparrow said, _"Actually, it isn't. Giant cobras choose their mates based on size and on how frightening they are, and you're larger and scarier than any other snake I've ever seen…"_

The Seamstress looked up and hissed at him.

"_Sorry."_

Suddenly, Nolan grabbed the Seamstress, pulled it out from under the snakes, and held it over his head. Boris quickly said something in the animal language that prevented the snakes from attacking him. The Seamstress tried to get out of his grip, but from the way Nolan was holding her, it was useless.

Nolan looked at Anthony and Kathleen and said, "Anthony, Kathleen, come with me. Stacy needs you in the town."

The two children followed him, but they made sure to stay at least five feet away from him.

Boris looked at Sparrow and quietly said, "Is he going insane?"

Sparrow, equally quiet, said, "I'm not sure…"

**Author's note: For those of you who figured out what exactly Stacy found 2 in, please don't hate on me or anything like that. Brutus and Westroliphio were inspired by a certain video game boss in a video on Youtube I saw called "Top Fifteen Most Disturbing Bosses from Non-Horror Games Part 1". That boss inspired Brutus' actions and Westroliphio's appearance. It's # 8.**

**Add-on: What? No reviews? Why am I not getting reviews? Are you guys busy or something? Do you have nothing to say? Am I doing something wrong? Is this not a good story? Should I not continue this story? What's going on? (I don't care what you say, mom. There's not much point in writing this story if people don't like it.) All right, I'm tired of this. I'm not even going to consider working on the next chapter until I get at least three good reviews for this story.**


	16. Breaking The Wall

Pleather said, "Come on, gramps. You're helping me find that boy."

Nathan said, "Why do you keep calling me 'gramps'?"

"It's a term of affection."

"Okay…"

"Look gramps, I trust you. It's been a long time since I've met anybody that I know I can safely trust. With one other exception, of course."

Nathan was surprised. "You don't trust anybody? Why not?"

Pleather was silent for several moments before saying, "…Because of the Pyrins. They brought out my worst side…and it's the only side most people care about."

"I've heard a bit about the Pyrins. What did they do to you?"

Pleather looked at Nathan with a gravely serious expression. "They robbed me of my life. When I was five years old, we were captured by the Pyrins. I was forced to watch almost everybody I once knew get vaporized. They did horrendous things to those they left alive… You could not believe the things I saw. You couldn't. During the night, no matter where I was, no matter what I did, I could hear the screams of those going through unimaginable things. And if I showed any fear, any displeasure about what I kept hearing, they would make me watch. Do you have any idea how traumatizing that was? I kept having nightmares. The Pyrins made sure of that. Even after being gone for several years, I can still hear the screams…" Pleather shuddered.

Nathan said, "Pleather…I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Don't be. I just gotta avoid going back. And not for my sake…" She looked down at herself.

Suddenly, both of them heard Stacy loudly yell, "GET OUT OF HERE, YOU B****!"

Pleather said, "And that's our cue."

Insert story breaker here

Brutus said, "You don't have to be so loud."

Stacy, holding 2 behind her, said, "Well it's the only way I can get it into your thick head."

Brutus said, "Ah, ah, remember. Gladdys will-"

Stacy, a noticeable degree of pleasure in her voice, said, "Gladdys is dead."

Brutus' eyes widened. He knew Stacy wouldn't lie about that. "What?"

"Gladdys is dead."

"Ah… Uh…"

Stacy, smiling wider than she ever had before, sadistically said, "Shocking, isn't it?"

"You killed her?"

"No, not really. She accidentally fell into some gears at the factory."

A look of puzzlement crossed Brutus' face. "The factory? Why on earth would she want to go in there?"

Stacy found it almost ironic that Brutus had enough sense not to go into the factory whereas Gladdys didn't. "She wanted to sacrifice a few of the stitchpunks to the FM."

Brutus looked at her incredulously. "You mean she thought she could just walk right in?"

"Yep."

"If it wasn't for the fact that you aren't exactly the kind to lie, I wouldn't believe you a bit."

Stacy was surprised. Brutus trusted her like that?

"…By the way, what happened to your shirt?"

"I accidentally tore it last night. Really, really badly. As for what you did to 2…"

Brutus said, "Ah, yes. I hadn't finished from last month."

Suddenly, Kathleen said, "You looked like you were pretty much done with him."

They turned to find Kathleen and Anthony standing about 20 feet away from them. Nolan was nowhere to be found. Anthony was looking at Stacy with an odd expression.

Brutus said, "I stopped because Gladdys made me stop. You think I would've stopped when he was only maimed?"

Kathleen said, "You wanted to kill him?"

"Of course, you dolt. Why else would I do something like that to somebody?"

Kathleen said, "So you wanted to make him as miserable as possible before killing him."

"And make him die of embarrassment."

Stacy quietly said, "I think he would've died of something else before then…"

Kathleen said, "What exactly did you just do to him, anyway?"

Brutus gave a smug smile. "What do you think?"

Kathleen put her fingers on her head as though she had a headache. "Don't tell me… You didn't do…THAT…did you?"

Brutus nodded and cleared his throat.

Kathleen looked at him incredulously. "You had fe*** AND vomit on him? My god, how sick ARE you, Brutus?"

Brutus merely chuckled. "Pretty sick, I guess. By the way, which ragdolls did Gladdys wanna give up?"

Stacy said, "5, 6, and 7."

"7… Oh yeah, I've heard of her. Isn't she, um…um…? What was it again?"

"Pregnant."

"Ah, yes, yes. Though…I gotta admit, an automaton being prego like that is a little…weird, don't you think?"

Kathleen said, "…Mmm, yeah, I'll admit, it is kinda weird."

Stacy got the hint. She lunged at Brutus and yelled, "If you so much as TRY that, I **WILL** MAKE YOU REGRET IT!"

Brutus said, "I didn't say I would do that."

Stacy, infuriated, said, "You were thinking it." …Then she noticed Brutus looking at her hand. She had accidentally revealed 2.

Brutus said, "Hmm, I see you tried to clean him off."

Stacy immediately backed away from her brother. "Leave him alone. You've given him more than enough traumatizing experiences for one lifetime."

Brutus said, "Well, I suppose if you count being stuck in voces, being skinned alive, and being rammed up someone's a** and then subjected to lo** noi*** traumatic, then-"

Stacy, using her free hand, grabbed her brother's throat and forced him against the wall of a building.

Stacy, gritting her teeth, said, "You did **WHAT** to him?"

Brutus was only able to let out a hoarse gasp.

Stacy said, "You know, I heard that the FM has a device that can kill anything by sucking out its soul. As disgusting as you are, I'm sure it wouldn't hesitate to use it on someone as strong as you…"

Brutus' face went white, and not because his sister was trying to strangle him.

Stacy sadistically smiled and said, "Don't believe me? Let's find out, shall we?"

Still holding her brother by the throat, Stacy turned to Kathleen, who now had a cloth in her hand (she always made sure to have one on hand at all times). She put 2 in the cloth and began heading towards the factory, wiping her hand on a tattered poster nearby.

And then Kathleen and Anthony noticed Pleather and a hooded man poking their heads out from behind a building. Pleather said, "Wow. That girl's feisty."

Kathleen and Anthony quickly but quietly ran back to their caravan before Pleather got a chance to see them.

Insert story breaker here

The rest of the stitchpunks were in the tower by then. They were concerned about the fact that 6 was completely unresponsive. None of them had any idea what was going on. At this point, they were mainly just waiting for 2 to come back. 7 was in her room. It was a good place for her to think (and she didn't feel very comfortable being with the others, what with her distended abdomen). Right now, though, the only thing she could really think about was her and 9's unborn child (the main reason for that being it moved constantly). She ran her hands over her stomach, hoping her child would calm down.

Suddenly, a bizarre memory rushed to the front of her mind. It was of a small room that was warmly lit by ornate candles. Fabric with exotic patterns on it hung from hidden points on the walls, making the true size and shape of the room impossible to determine. The floor was covered in soft blankets and pillows. In the center of the room on a small platform covered with exceptionally exotic-looking pillows was a bizarre-looking but beautiful creature. It had purple patterns on its orange skin that emphasized an attractive appearance. Several newborn offspring were sleeping next to it, cozying up with their apparent parent. The creature then began talking. It seemed to be saying something about a song to calm restless children…

7 snapped out of the memory and shook her head, startled. It was definitely _not_ the memory of a dream, and there was no way that place could've been on earth. 7 tried to place it, but she kept thinking of the mysterious voice from 100 years ago and when it had told her and 9 to go to sleep…

_Don't worry, 7… 9 will take care of you and your daughter…_

Insert story breaker here

Alice, sitting on the floor of the cathedral, said, "So, where's Maria?"

Keith, who was sitting next to her, said, "She's back at the caravans."

"Shouldn't you be with her?"

"I would love to be with her, but her father…won't allow me to get close to her."

"Oh. I see." Maria's father, Jonathan, was a very strict and, at times, abusive man.

Alice said, "You wanna know something about Sam?"

"The doctor?"

"Yep."

Suddenly, Sam burst into the cathedral and said, "Have you two seen Nolan recently?"

Keith said, "I think he's in the town. Why?"

Sam groaned and ran back out, saying, "I told him to stay, but noooo…"

Keith looked at Alice and she shrugged.

Alice said, "Anyway, Sam's mom was a doctor and an Intell."

Keith said, "Really? I thought his father was-"

"Oh, no, no, Jason would never consider being a medical professional. Unless he got to have sex with a bunch of women as a result…"

"Huh?"

"Jason is one of those people who shouldn't be parents."

"What should he be, then?"

"Uh…" She whispered into his ear the answer.

When she was done, Keith said, "Oh. Uh…I see. Is he anything like Jonathan?"

"Oh no, Jason is far worse. You'll know when you see him…if you see him."

"Hmm."

Keith looked around. Aside from Boris (who was giving Sparrow an odd look), he and Alice were the only people still in the cathedral.

Keith said, "…Say…Hilians wear a skin-tight suit under their robes, right?"

"Of course. We don't want to be naked if we have to take off our robes. Why?"

"Would you mind taking off your robes?"

"Why?"

"I wanna know what your body looks like."

"Why?"

"I just want to."

Alice glanced back at Boris before looking back at Keith. She wasn't used to having her robe off in public. Of course, this wasn't exactly public…

Alice sighed and said, "All right. I'll show you."

They both stood up as Alice struggled to get out of her robes. She seemed to be having difficulty getting it over her chest. When she finally got it off, Keith saw why.

Alice laughed as Keith's eyes bulged.

Keith said, "Um… Er… I, uh…"

Alice said, "What is it?"

"I didn't expect you to be so, um…um…"

"So what?"

"So…attractive."

"In what way?"

"Um…" Keith looked nervously at Boris. He was still giving Sparrow an odd look.

"In what way am I attractive? And why do you keep looking at my b-"

"Because they're what are attractive."

"How are my-"

"I don't know. That's just how the mind works."

Alice, feeling increasingly uncomfortable, put her robes back on. She had just finished putting them back on when a bear-like Worken man came into the cathedral.

The moment she saw him, Alice gasped and moved behind Keith.

The man walked up to Keith. He felt extremely intimidated by the man's sheer size.

The man growled, "Where's Samuel?"

Keith said, "I…I don't know, sir."

The man put his large hand around Keith's neck.

Keith frantically said, "I-I don't know anybody named Samuel! I swear!"

"Most people call him Sam. He dresses like an Intell."

He tightened his grip around Keith's neck.

Keith was barely able to gasp out, "Ack! He-he's in the town! Looking for Nolan! I-I don't know…where exactly he…is…"

The man let go of Keith's neck. He collapsed to the ground, gasping.

The man then left, but not before trying to take Alice with him. A growl by Boris was all it took to apparently convince him otherwise.

When Keith was able to breathe normally again, he said, "Was…was that…Jason?"

Alice said, "Yes. And he's a force to be reckoned with."

"Depends on what you mean by 'reckoned'."

Boris said, "'Least he'd be unlikely to try to fight me, right?"

Alice said, "Wrong."

"Wrong?"

"You have no idea how powerful that man is."

"Is he more powerful than the Fabrication Machine?"

"…I very seriously doubt that."

"I thought so."

Boris turned back to Sparrow. But Sparrow was gone.

Insert story breaker here

Anthony said, "I think that's as clean as we can get him."

Kathleen double-checked to make sure she had gotten all of it off. Then she smelled him.

Kathleen said, "Yep, he's clean."

She set 2 down on a table. He sat up, silent and a blank expression on his face.

Kathleen said, "Are you okay?"

No response.

"Do you feel like talking?"

After a few moments, 2 shook his head.

"Do you want me to take you home?"

2 shook his head.

"Do you wanna stay here a little while longer?"

2 nodded.

"Okay."

Kathleen turned back towards Anthony, but he was looking in the direction of the door.

He said, "Who the heck are you?"

She looked…and saw a person wearing a black hooded robe that almost completely covered his face. They had one hand holding the door open. From the look of the hand, it was an old person.

Kathleen looked at him and said, "What are you doing here?"

The person tried to run off, but Kathleen immediately grabbed their arm.

"I said, what are you doing here?"

The person didn't respond.

"Who are you?"

This time, the person said something, but Kathleen couldn't hear him.

The man said it again, this time loud enough for Kathleen to hear him.

Kathleen said, "Nathan?"

The man nodded.

"I don't know anyone named Nathan."

Nathan very quietly said, "I mean no harm."

Kathleen said, "…Let me see your face."

From an angle at which 2 would not be able to see him, Nathan briefly showed Kathleen his face.

Kathleen said, "All right, Nathan. I think I can trust you. So, Nathan, where did you come from?"

Nathan quietly said, "…Um…Outside."

"Can you give me a specific place?"

Nathan shook his head.

Kathleen said, "All right, then. You stay here while I get Abby."

Kathleen put him on a chair in the caravan and went out the door.

Anthony said, "May I see your face?"

Nathan shook his head.

"Why not?"

Nathan didn't respond.

2, curious, looked over Nathan. For some strange reason, Nathan's hands (the only part of his body that wasn't covered by the robe) looked very, very familiar…

Insert story breaker here

Pleather said, "Weren't you taking Brutus to that factory?"

Stacy, still not wearing a shirt, said, "He got away."

"Oh. Say, what makes you think that Fabby has something that can-"

"I was just bluffing. I don't actually know if it has anything like that. And did you just call the Fabrication Machine 'Fabby'?"

"I did. So what?"

"From what I've heard, that name seems a little…sugarcoated?"

"What have you heard?"

Insert story breaker here

1 was bored. It was noon and 2 STILL had yet to return. Fortunately, 6 seemed to be getting over…whatever was wrong with him in the first place.

1 found himself thinking about his earliest memories. There was one memory that was startlingly similar to his sacrificing himself to the Machine instead of 9… It was of a young girl sacrificing herself to a Walker to save her sister…

Suddenly, 5's loud scream brought him back to reality.

5, who had discovered the storage area, had spotted the Scorpion. The moment he saw that it was very much alive and apparently unrestrained, he screamed, ran, and jumped onto the first stitchpunk he ran into…which just so happened to be 1. Needless to say, 1 was caught completely off guard.

Normally, 8 would've leaped into action and started fighting, but upon seeing that it was the Scorpion, he held back. He didn't want to get stung again.

The Scorpion simply looked at them, appearing bored. It also stayed exactly where it was.

1, who was considerably more observant than the others, noticed that the Scorpion's legs were in between the floorboards…

1 said to the Scorpion, "You're stuck, aren't you?"

The Scorpion nodded. To prove it, it immediately began trying to free its legs from the floorboards. Despite its obvious effort, it remained very soundly stuck.

The stitchpunks, convinced that it was stuck and that it had no long-range attacks, relaxed.

1 said, "5, would you mind getting off of me?"

5, finally realizing that he had jumped onto 1, quickly got off.

Before anybody could ask how long it had been there, they suddenly heard Kathleen say, "5, 9, I am in need of your assistance!"

7, meanwhile, had been asleep the whole time.

Insert story breaker here

Even though Stacy had long since stopped chasing him, Brutus was still running from her. He had completely failed to realize that Stacy was not as persistent with chasing as he thought she was. He ran through alleys, over rubble, under broken objects and occasionally hiding in them. After a while, he accidentally ran straight into Kathleen. Brutus immediately began running again, failing to notice that Kathleen had dropped 9 when he had run into her. Unfortunately, Kathleen failed to notice as well. By the time 9 had his bearings again, Kathleen was out of sight.

_Oh great_, he thought. He was alone and defenseless in the middle of a section of town he barely knew.

Suddenly, he noticed a somewhat large, purple feather near him. Curious, he picked it up. The feather was soft and shiny, and looked just like the one that Sparrow had behind his ear.

While he was looking at it, 9 accidentally poked himself with the feather…

Insert story breaker here

Stacy said, "…And that's everything I've heard about the Fabrication Machine."

Pleather said, "…Oh. I see. That's quite… I'm not sure what the right word is."

"Terrifying?"

"Maybe."

"…Stacy, how come you're not afraid of me?"

"Because I like your personality."

"You do know that I beat up, um…Nolan, was it?"

"Yes. And I don't care. That guy really had it coming for him. Now if you could do something about Jason…"

"Who's he?"

"He looks like an angry bear and-"

"Oh yes. That guy. Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"You don't think that this story's going too fast or that the sections in this chapter are too short, do you?"

"I don't know and, frankly, I'm not sure if I care. I can understand everything that's happening to me and that's all I care about. The author could focus a little more on the original characters, though."

"I thought so, too."

Suddenly, both of them heard the howling of a wolf.

Stacy said, "That's odd. You don't usually heard wolves howling this time of day."

"It might be a machine."

"Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about…"

"By the way, Stacy…"

"What?"

"Is Jason a Worken?"

"…Don't tell me. He's right behind me."

Pleather nodded.

"Sh**."

**Author's note: Yeah, yeah, I posted another chapter even though I only got one review. Turns out all I really needed was one encouraging review. That doesn't mean I want only one review per chapter, though. I remind you all that I have anonymous reviews enabled, so anybody can review my story.**

**Note on 2****nd**** section: Yeah…that's really disgusting… I have a feeling that's gonna stick in a couple people's heads… Seriously, go watch that video I mentioned in the previous chapter.**

**Edit (5/29/12): Okay, guys. I'm getting REALLY tired of not getting reviews. Why is it that some people are able to get twice as many reviews as chapters in a short amount of time while I can't get as many reviews as I have chapters? (I wil admit though, that that's probably because they've been on this place for significantly longer.) I'm serious, guys. Why are you holding back on reviews? Am I doing something wrong? ...All right, let's do this. If I don't have a total of 20 ADEQUATE reviews for this story by June 11th (I'm planning on putting up another chapter between now and then), I WILL take this story down. I'm not joking. At all. So get reviewing! (I know this is obvious, but I'm a little desperate for reviews...)**

**By the way, an adequate review counts as a review that, at the least, gives some sort of comment about the story, maybe even gives a suggestion for improvement, gives some sort of helpful encouragement, or are just plain helpful at the time. But DO NOT just ask for the next chapter. Not only does it NOT help me, but it gets annoying if that's all the person does (look at the reviews for my earlier stories... You'll see...). I have, at the very least, 14 adequate reviews (as of 4:11 PM on May 30th).**

**And that's all I have to say.**


	17. A new danger

Keith, who had left the cathedral several minutes earlier, wandered through the town, hoping he would find Sam (or Samuel) before Jason did. Keith had no idea what Jason was planning on doing to him, but he would rather not find out.

Suddenly, the sound of a wolf howling filled the air. A chill ran up Keith's spine. Not only did something sound strange about the howl, but it was very nearby, right behind the row of houses to his left. Several moments after the howl, a chilled breeze swept through the town and clouds quickly covered the sky. Keith's instincts told him that this sudden change was far from natural. And then he felt something on his shoulder. Keith's body suddenly went cold. He tried to look, but he felt like he was frozen solid.

A voice in his head said, _Where is 7?_

It sounded like his voice, but…it wasn't…

Keith almost autonomously said, "She's in the tower of the cathedral…as she should be."

He felt something slither around his neck.

_Why should she be there?_

Keith, his entire body numb, could barely say, "She's…pregnant."

_Ah, so it finally happened. Don't bother trying to ask. Not only does it have to do with events that occurred 100 years ago and therefore is none of your business, but you can't ask anyway._

Keith tried. His vocal cords refused to work.

_Thank you for telling me her location. Of course, you had no choice._

Keith suddenly said, "Who are you?"

He immediately felt whatever was around his neck tighten.

_How did you do that?_

Behind Keith, 9 suddenly said, "Leave him alone."

After a few moments, whatever was holding onto Keith forced him into unconsciousness

Insert story breaker here

1 stood in the entrance to 7's room. He was getting quite concerned over the fact that 7 seemed to be sleeping a lot lately. Knowing that nobody would be watching them, 1 slowly walked over to 7 and gently put his hand on her arm. She didn't stir even a little. But 1 knew very well that she was only sleeping.

_If only you could remember…_, 1 thought lamentably.

Suddenly, a chill ran up 1's spine and the room seemed to become colder. Even 7 shivered. Pangs of fear ran through 1's body. He knew very well what was happening.

_No… It can't be…_

The thing that threatened him and 7 at the moment was far more dangerous than the Fabrication Machine could ever be.

Insert story breaker here

The Fabrication Machine's mind whirred with thoughts. The one that stood out the most was the nagging feeling that something just wasn't right. Every now and then, he would look around in an attempt to find what was causing his uneasiness, to no avail. After a while, he began to feel like something was holding onto him, and he would shake himself in an attempt to get it off, again, to no avail.

After about an hour, though…

Suddenly, a chill ran up one of his arms. He immediately looked…and was surprised to see a small, black, hazy ball with two tentacles apparently looking at his claws with extreme interest. The Fabrication Machine immediately pulled his claw away. The tentacles went back into the ball, but it still seemed to be looking at the Machine. Suddenly, a voice that sounded like the wind came into the Machine's mind.

_You can see me, can you not?_

The Fabrication Machine said, _"Of course I can see you… Why would I not?"_

_Who was your creator?_

"_Even if I knew his name, I wouldn't tell you."_

At this point, all the machines in the room were watching. They could see and hear the black ball as well.

…_On an unrelated note, does the name "Monstralio" sound familiar?_

A feeling of dread swept through the Machine. _"Why are you asking me that?"_

_Answer the question and I'll tell you why._

"…_Yes. It does."_

Tentacles came out of the black ball and wrapped onto the Machine's head.

_Perfect…_

The black ball itself leaped onto the Fabrication Machine's head. The Machine grabbed the ball and immediately tried to tear it off, but the ball had a surprisingly tight grip.

It wasn't long before words began to form in the Fabrication Machine's mind. Brothers… Sisters… Jarac… Original gods… The Void… His memories were becoming dull and his hatred of living beings was fading. The black ball, Jarac, was trying to take over his mind.

Thinking fast, the Fabrication Machine resorted to using the only weapon that (he hoped) was guaranteed to work; the Talisman.

When the Talisman's soul-sucking beams touched Jarac, he shrieked as it slowly tore away something from inside him…

After several moments, a loud ripping sound was heard as a smaller, red ball was torn from him and absorbed by the Fabrication Machine. Jarac tore away from the Machine's head, surprised at what it did.

The Fabrication Machine did not immediately realize that Jarac was still alive…mainly because of the feeling that ran through every piece of his body as a result of absorbing the red ball (although the FM didn't know that that was what the Talisman had taken). It made him feel warm and powerful; it brought a comfortable feeling as his anger and hatred were brought back and given new life… In fact, this was the very first time he truly felt alive…

Jarac hissed, snapping the FM out of its thoughts.

_That was not nice. Whatever you used, don't even think about using it again. Because that little trinket of yours took my precious Crimson spirit, I am unable to harm you. Fortunately, the same thing cannot be said for those ragdolls… I hope your soulheart bursts from all that Color you gain._

With that, Jarac disappeared with a puff of black smoke.

It was silent for several moments before the Fabrication Machine said, _"Wolf! Come here!"_

The Wolf Beast jumped out of the crowd of machines. _"Yes, Father."_

"_Go out into the town and…it pains me to say this, but…make sure all the stitchpunks are…safe…"_

"_Of course, Father. …Er, why?"_

"_Because the stitchpunks are mine and mine alone to kill. See if you can find that humanoid machine I built earlier as well."_

"_Of course, Father."_

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Pleather stood over Jason, hitting him again and again with her baseball bat. Stacy, who was now naked, watched from several feet away. Considering what Jason had tried to do to her (and that he was just a bad person in general), she was glad at what Pleather was doing.

Jason had tried to put up a fight, but Pleather was a lot stronger than she looked; it took all his strength just to defend himself…which was exactly what he was doing. He had hoped that Pleather would eventually get tired and stop, but that hope proved to be false; Pleather had been going at the same pace and strength for hours. At this point, Jason had long since lost the strength to even sit-up by himself.

Pleather yelled, "That'll teach you to try to rape me!"

A few minutes later, Pleather heard a sound to her right. She stopped and looked. Several feet away from them and staring directly at Pleather was the Winged Beast. It seemed to be quite curious.

Pleather looked at Jason. There was no way whatsoever that he would be able to defend himself from the machine.

Pleather smiled and, waving, said, "Bye-bye!" before promptly running off. Stacy quickly followed.

The Winged Beast walked up to Jason and looked almost curiously at him. Jason turned his head to look at the beast.

After several moments, he was able to say, "Kill me…please."

The Winged Beast, happy to comply, backed up and readied its harpoon tail. Jason opened his mouth to allow for an easy hit. The Winged Beast, aiming through Jason's mouth, pointed its harpoon directly at Jason's spine…

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Abigail sat by herself in an alley of the ruined town. She was staring at an old photograph that she had found in one of the houses. The wooden frame had letters carved into the front that were, for the most part, still legible.

It said, "Ab_ and Na_'s 9th birthday with grandpa N_."

The photograph was of the Scientist, smiling, with two young girls in his lap. One girl, wearing farm overalls, had clearly spent much more time outside than her sister. In the background was another, younger girl with a blob-shaped birthmark on her left cheek.

Abigail sighed.

Suddenly, a voice next to her said, "What's that?"

Startled, Abigail quickly turned towards the voice, but was relieved to find that it was only 1. She sighed again and showed him the picture. To her mild surprise, 1's eyes widened to the point where they were almost circular.

Abigail said, "What is it?"

1, astonished, said, "I…I've seen those girls before."

Abigail was very surprised. "You have?"

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1 hid in some rubble, hoping that the enormous Walkers would soon be gone. He, only a few days old, had been quickly overwhelmed by the chaos of the outside world. That old man hadn't so much as bothered to mention what had been going on outside. Of course, he probably wouldn't have understood it anyway…

The tremendous thudding of the Walkers' footsteps soon went away.

Suddenly, a young girl outside yelled, "Come on, Abby! We need to keep moving!"

1, young and having never heard the sound of a female, quickly looked outside the rubble.

A girl with black hair and wearing a green dress was help another, apparently injured girl with brown hair and wearing blue farm overalls and a red shirt.

The second girl said, "I…I don't think I can…"

"We have to, Abby! If we stay here, they'll kill us for sure! You saw what they did to mom and dad! And grandpa and Athena are probably dead too!"

Abby said, "Maybe they're not… Athena's smart and grandpa made their leader…"

"It doesn't matter! If we leave, we might be able to survive."

"You might. Not me…"

"What's wrong with you, Abby? You can't think like that!"

In response, Abby showed the other girl her ankle. 1 saw it too…and what he saw made him quickly look away.

The girl in the dress said, "Oh my… How did that happen?"

"I don't know, sis… I can't walk… Just leave me here…"

"…I'm not gonna do that. I'll help you walk."

The girl in the dress helped Abby get up and supported her. 1, out of curiosity, followed them. Because of Abby's limp, he was able to keep up with them. However…

When they got to the end of the street, a lone Walker burst through a nearby wall. The girl in the dress quickly shoved Abby to the side. She landed safe and sound between two buildings…and right next to 1. Abby got up just in time to watch her sister get gunned down by the Walker. A Walker that passed by not long after briefly looked at the girl's remains before moving on.

1 was stunned. That was the first time he had seen a living being get killed. Abby was even more stunned. She just sat there, panting and tears pouring from her eyes. She stayed there for several minutes before reluctantly getting up and walking away, still crying.

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Abigail said, "W-what happened to the girl with the birthmark?"

1 said, "I saw her a few hours later. She was killed by the gas."

"What about the girl with the overalls?"

"I saw her running from the town at dusk. I never saw her again."

"…Are you all right, 1? You don't sound like you're well…"

"I'll be fine. Just tell me which direction the cathedral is."

"It should be that way. Would you like me to take you there?"

"No, no, I can get there myself."

"Are you sure? You don't-"

"Abigail, I'll be fine."

"Very well. I think I hear Kathleen calling for me anyway."

1 stared after her until she was out of sight. He had noticed that Abigail had a large and very old scar on her ankle…

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The humanoid machine, who had just named himself Haymitch, was walking through the forest ten miles from the ruined city. He had run away from the factory to avoid punishment for letting four stitchpunks leave the factory when he had them captive. He had managed to escape without anybody noticing him, both in the factory and in the town. He had quickly grown to like the forest. He enjoyed looking at the wildlife and being able to appreciate the beauty of nature.

…And then he was hit with a grim realization. His Father, the Fabrication Machine, wanted to kill off all life, and he had succeeded in destroying organic life. He was very capable of doing so again. The trees would be reduced to lifeless husks and the animals would become mere corpses, staying that way as there would be no bacteria to decompose their bodies.

Haymitch sighed, knowing that there was no way he could stop it. He put the tips of his fingers into a stream, relaxed by the sensation of the cool water on his fingers.

Suddenly, something behind him captured him in a thick bag. Haymitch tried to resist, but he couldn't get out, and his captor refused to speak.

After several hours, the sounds of nature stopped and were soon replaced by the sound of people screaming. The volume of the screaming was different depending on where he was, but the screaming could always be heard. Eventually, he was dumped into a cold stone floor and was quickly restrained onto a metal chair.

Haymitch quickly looked around. He was in a small room lit only by a red light hanging from the ceiling. The door to the room seemed to be made of iron. His captor and the people who had restrained him were nowhere to be seen.

And Haymitch could still hear the screaming. He wondered for a long while if he had somehow managed to be taken to hell.

After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened and a man wearing full body armor composed entirely of amber-colored crystals, flanked by two men with blond hair and blue eyes carrying spears, walked into the room. The door silently shut behind the guards.

The man with the armor walked up to Haymitch and said, "What is your name?" He sounded like he was in his 50s.

"Haymitch."

"Well, Haymitch, two of my scouts found you in a forest 90 miles to the east of our current location. Would you care to explain how you came to be there?"

"First I want to know who you are, where I am, why those people keep screaming, and why you want to know where I came from."

"I am the leader of the Pyrin tribe, and we are currently in the Ivanaha Canyons, our home."

"I thought we were in hell."

The guards narrowed their eyes, but the Pyrin leader laughed.

"I've heard more than one prisoner say that! Never thought I'd hear that from a machine! Anyway, we, the Pyrins, have made it our mission to annihilate all other tribes and take our rightful place as-"

"What do I have to do with this?"

"Do not interrupt me. We have lately been having a lot of difficulty in locating the remaining members of the other tribes. I have sent my greatest soldier as a spy to the suspected location, but we have yet to hear anything from him. You, Haymitch, are not a creation of the Pyrin tribe, and you do not appear to be very old."

One of the leader's guards said, "Just tell him and tell him the truth, Haymitch. It'll save us a lot of time and you a lot of pain."

The Pyrin leader said, "Listen to him, Haymitch. I know that you know the location of the remaining tribes. If you don't tell us now, we'll have to force it out of you."

Haymitch knew that the Pyrins would do anything to get him to tell. He wasn't about to let anything happen to the humans.

"Then force it."

"…Very well. For your first torture, you will find out why those prisoners are screaming…by joining them."

**Author's note: I'm going to end here because it's getting late.**

**On a side note, I'm reconsidering having my parents read my chapters after I post them. My sister, when I had her read this story, refused to go past the second or third chapter as she couldn't keep up with the events of the story, she doesn't like stories that involve pregnancy, and she says that I barely focus on the original characters. My mom, while she likes my writing style, doesn't like the fact that I keep introducing new characters and she doesn't really like the fact that I have a fair amount of violence and potentially upsetting events in this story…plus, by reading this story, she'd get an idea of what I've been looking at on the internet… My dad likes this story, but I'm still a bit upset over his intended compliment that I would soon no longer need the original characters ('cause I focus a lot on the OCs and their stories), but…this is a 9 fan fiction, and I DO need the original characters for this story (we've had talks about it, but I still can't get over it).**

**Wait… If I'm having my parents read this…then why did I put in the previous paragraph…?**

**Edit (6\4\12): My threat to delete this story on friday if I don't have at least 20 adequate reviews by then still stands. I have 18 adequate reviews.**


	18. 1's lament

A wave of doubt swept through 1's mind as he carefully picked up an unconscious 7 and carried her on his shoulder. Why was he, old and frail, risking his life, which was ebbing away as slowly as molasses, to save 7, whom he still had difficulty getting along with? The answer was simple; it wasn't 7 he wanted to save so much as…

1 didn't remember what had happened, but when he had woken up, he had felt hollow, empty, and a bit tired. Most people might've ignored it, but 1 knew very well what it meant, and there was nothing anybody on the planet could do about it. That was why he had refused Abigail's offer to take him home; he didn't want any of the other stitchpunks to feel like they could've done something. Nobody could help him. Except, perhaps…

1, slowly making his way toward the cathedral and with 7 slung over his shoulder, quietly said, "Nameless Sister…please save us."

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Stacy said, "What do you mean you can't find 9?"

Kathleen said, "That's just it! I can't find him!"

"What happened?"

"I wanted to bring him and 5 to 2, but when I got there, I only had 5!"

Pleather, whom Kathleen had quickly learned was not murder-crazy, said, "Did you fall down on the way?"

"…No, but I did run into Brutus…"

From behind them, Brutus said, "I didn't kidnap 9, just so you know."

All three of them turned around…and Brutus threw a bowlful of brown stuff onto Stacy's chest.

"I thought you were still chasing me."

Stacy, infuriated, said, "What the hell was that for?"

"What happened to your pants?"

"Jason happened."

"Ah. I see. Don't look at me like that! It's only mud!"

Stacy took a closer look. It was, indeed, just mud.

Brutus looked at Pleather and said, "Aren't you that crazy chick from when Keith came?"

"I'm not crazy. And I saw what you did to 2. How could you do something like that to ANYBODY?"

"Keith doesn't like you, right?"

"Right, but…"

"Then you might wanna get going, 'because he's heading right for us."

Indeed, Keith was coming up to them from the other direction. But there was clearly something wrong with him. And, strangely, he had his bag with him.

Pleather somewhat reluctantly left. When Keith was close enough to the three children, he said, "We…have a fairly large…problem on our hands." He showed them what he was holding. It was the Winged Beast…or rather, what was left of it.

Its tail, wings, and mouth were gone, and three of its eyes were broken, along with other damages.

Stacy said, "Jason?"

"Not Jason. He was nearby, but he looked like Pleather beat him up. This…this looks like a monster attacked it."

Kathleen said, "Wait… Is that thing still alive?"

The Winged Beast slowly nodded.

Brutus, slowly backing up, said, "Um, guys?"

All three said, "What?"

"There's something behind you…"

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Anthony, who was now sitting outside the caravan and talking to Nathan, said, "…And that is how Benny and I became friends."

Nathan said, "That's quite a story."

Maria said, "And his best one."

Surprised, Anthony turned towards her voice…and found that he had the attention of almost everybody in the tribes.

Anthony quietly said, "Not again…" then said, "I've told you guys! It's not a story! It really happened! What do I have to do to prove it? …Oh forget it. Move along, folks. Nothing else to see here."

The crowd soon dispersed.

Anthony said, "Geez. What does it take to-"

Suddenly, Brutus, Stacy, Kathleen, and Keith came running from the ruins with Brutus yelling, "Help! We're being chased by a monster wolf!"

To prove it, the mechanical Wolf Beast sprang out behind them.

Maria, who was holding Jean, just so happened to be nearby. Consequentially, she was quickly attacked by it. Keith, seeing this, quickly ran back and slammed his bag into the machine's head, allowing Maria to escape.

Keith, preparing to attack, quickly reached into his bag and took out…a roughly spherical Veridian crystal the size of a human head. Keith was surprised, but he held onto it and smashed it onto the Wolf Beast's head.

_The Veridian crystal shattered into numerous pieces, causing an amber-colored liquid to splatter onto Keith and the machine._

Both of them stood there. The Wolf Beast stared at the ground, panting and trembling. Keith was shocked. His crystal had been subject to much greater forces. _How could it have shattered?_

Keith slowly turned towards the others and said, "That wasn't supposed to happen…"

Brutus, walking towards him, said, "The thing breaking or the stuff coming out?"

"Both…"

Brutus wiped some of the liquid onto his hand and licked it. "Tastes citrusy."

Keith tried it. "It does."

Anthony said, "That thing doesn't exactly look monstrous…"

Brutus said, "That's not what was chasing us."

"Then what was chasing you?"

Before Brutus could answer, a boy almost completely covered in feathers came up behind Anthony and said, "Anny, I need to talk to you."

Anthony whirled around and said, "Benny, this isn't a good time…"

"It's really important, Anny. It can't wait."

"All right, what is it?"

Benny briefly looked at the others before saying, "Um… The elder one who is near another of opposite gender who carries unborn life is moving towards the void's gates as swiftly as snails and only the nameless sister who lives in a tree can stop him."

Benny gave Anthony a quick salute before rushing off.

There was silence for several moments before Stacy said, "What?"

Anthony said, "Whenever Benny has something important to say, he usually says it in some form of riddle. I don't know why."

Kathleen said, "So what did he say?"

"Um… An old man who's near a pregnant woman is dying very slowly and the only one who can save him…is not in this world."

"How do you know they're not here?"

"I'd tell you…but you wouldn't believe me."

Meanwhile, the Wolf Beast had left.

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The first thing 9 was aware of upon waking up was that he was lying on something fuzzy. He looked up and saw that he was on the back of 8's wolf. They were in front of the cathedral.

9 had no idea what had happened. He had poked himself with the feather and then…nothing. He tried to remember what had happened, but the only thing he could remember was the tired-sounding voice of a woman saying, "I'll always be watching over you and the others, 9…"

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The Wolf Beast slowly walked through the ruined streets. When the liquid spattered onto him, something had changed. For the first real time, he was wondering where the stitchpunks had come from, who created his Father, what the town had looked like before, and many more things. And he felt _alive_. It was a strange feeling. He felt fuller and more complete and felt like he truly existed… No, more than that. It was hard to describe.

Whatever it felt like, it was a very pleasant feeling. He felt like something had taken off a burden that he hadn't even realized was there. He felt…euphoric…

If the Wolf Beast could smile, he would be doing so. It was such a good feeling. Was this what his father was after? Was this what his father wanted to feel? If so, then he would gladly help him. Without harming the cute stitchpunks, of course…

The Wolf Beast stopped. Cute? He had never heard that word before. How could he properly use a word that he had never heard befo-

Something suddenly touched him. A chill ran through his body.

The voice of a tired-sounding woman said, "Can you hear me?"

The beast nodded.

"Good. Now, one of the stitchpunks is in danger of dying. He's with another stitchpunk who you must be careful with. Find them and bring them home before nightfall or else I won't be able to save the one that's dying…"

The Wolf Beast turned to look at who was talking to him…

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Anthony said, "Brutus, about what you did to 2…"

Brutus said, "You mean that old geezer? Ah, it's okay. You don't need to worry about him so much."

"Brutus, you traumatized him to the point where he can't speak."

"Did I? Well he should be fine in a few hours-"

"I don't think we're going to get him talking again for a while. Also, considering what you did to him the first time, I'm surprised that he hadn't gone insane."

"Wanna know where I got the idea to do that?"

"NO. What I DO want to know is how you could do something like that to someone as nice as 2."

"It was possible to do it, so I did it."

"…Stacy was right. You DON'T have any morals."

"Whadda ya mean?"

"Brutus, you stuffed him into a pile of your ***1. That is WRONG on a NUMBER of levels."

Somebody nearby said, "He did WHAT?"

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1 diligently trudged through the ruins, still carrying 7 on his shoulder, with the hot mid-summer afternoon sun beating down on him. The heat, 7's weight added weight, and his already-weak body were draining his strength and causing his life to fade away even faster. If this continued, he might not make it to the cathedral before nightfall. At nightfall, he would run an increasingly high risk of collapsing, and if he collapsed, he'd never get up again.

One of 1's legs suddenly gave out from under him, and he was forced to stop and rest for a few minutes. He looked up at the sky. The bright, blue, completely cloudless sky seemed to contrast sharply with the grey and desolate ruins below.

1 was glad that he could see the cathedral tower. It was the only way he could tell if he was going in the right direction. Unfortunately, he was too far away to be seen from the watchtower…even if someone was up there.

1 forced himself to get up. He had to continually remind himself that he was doing this to protect 7's child. Why? Because…he had to. 1 almost chuckled when he realized that. Here he was, risking his ever-fading life to ensure the survival of the child of the ones he disliked the most (aside from the Pyrins and the machines, of course). It felt just like when he had sacrificed his life to save 9's from the Fabrication Machine…

1 suddenly realized something startling; the efforts made by the Fabrication Machine to capture the stitchpunks and to kill life in general were surprisingly weak. It was almost as though it was holding back…

1's other leg gave out and forced him to stop. There was a dull, aching pain throughout his entire body…a pain that would only get worse.

_No…_, he thought. _I won't get there before nightfall…_

1 forced himself back up. He could hardly do it. His body ached, begging for rest. He trudged forward, constantly reminding himself that he was doing this to save a life that had yet to live. He soon felt dizzy and his mind became foggy. He wasn't even sure if he was going in the right direction anymore (fortunately, he was).

1 had been walking for only 30 minutes. Two hours later, he was still walking towards the cathedral…but he was very weak. 1's body was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, and his heavy panting was beginning to become shaky. He had been wondering if something was deliberately trying to make it harder for him to keep going.

Unbeknownst to him, 2, 5, and 9 had long since returned to the tower, and all of them had learned what the hunans had found out; 1 was trying his hardest to get back home with 7…even though there was a possibility that he was dying.

1's limbs trembled as he struggled to support himself and 7. He regretted his decision to turn down Abigail's offer to take him home. He couldn't shake the feeling that if he had just rested as much as possible instead of unnecessarily exerting all his energy, he could've survived.

Finally, 1's legs collapsed from exhaustion. Unable to get up, he knelt there, panting shakily. Looking around, his eyes fell upon a pile of rubble that made a sort of cave. 1 crawled over to it, taking 7 with him.

Inside the cave, it was dark and cool and cozy. 1 found himself deeply tempted to stop and rest in the cave for a while. 1's mind was too tired to function, so he let his hot and tired body determine his decision.

1 gently set 7 on her side and set her against the side of the wall. 1 lied down near her and fell asleep.

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The Wolf Beast panted in fear. The thing that had been talking to him had just gotten attacked by the Cat Beast, and both had quickly learned that the creature, whatever it was, could not defend itself. The Wolf Beast had no idea what exactly had happened after that, but something had forced his head into a wall. He could hear what they were saying, though.

A male voice said, "I knew you cared about them, but I didn't think you'd go THAT far."

The female voice said, "I had to… Saving him would've been impossible otherwise…"

"Sister, you know that it's dangerous here and you can't defend yourself. As much as you may care about them, they are not your children…or do you consider them as such?"

"I'll…tell you when we're alone…" She was starting to sound weak.

"…Sister…as much as you may care about others, you must care about yourself. We must get back. Don't worry, he'll be okay…"

The Wolf Beast was pulled out of the wall. When he turned to where the voices had been, there was nothing there…

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Chills ran through 1's body, causing him to shiver even though it wasn't cold. At first, he couldn't remember what had happened prior to his falling asleep. When he did, he jolted up-or at least tried to. He hardly had more energy than before, but he did feel somewhat stronger. He carefully picked up 7, who was still unconscious, and carried her outside on his shoulder. The moment he saw where the sun was, 1 knew that he had been asleep for a long time; the sun was going to set in 2 hours.

1 immediately began going as fast as he could without tiring himself too quickly. He might as well have just walked as normally as he could. Any time he might have saved by going faster was lost by him having to slow down several times. But he refused to stop.

After an hour and a half, though, it became increasingly obvious that 1 was not going to get to the cathedral before sundown. He was, at the absolute least, 200 feet from the cathedral. Regardless, 1 kept going. He wanted to make sure that 7 was safe so that her baby would be safe.

Although 7 seemed fine, 1 had gotten much worse. His entire body trembled from weakness and it took every ounce of his strength just to stand up. His mind felt foggy and slow and his gasping was strained and shaky. He was surprised that he was still able to stand. He knew very well, though, that if he even so much as got onto one knee, he'd never get back up.

After 25 minutes, he didn't have the strength to look up to see if he was still going in the right direction anymore. Trying to speak would be pointless. He would've barely had the strength to get his voice above a raspy whisper, and nobody was close enough to hear him anyway. Besides, it would've just wasted his strength.

Over the course of the 2 hours, the sky had become covered with dark clouds. Fortunately, they were just rain clouds. Unfortunately, they also made it impossible to tell how close the sun was to setting. Even if they weren't there, though, 1 still wouldn't have been able to see as he was unable to look.

The pain all over 1's body was far worse. It was worse than when his soul had been sucked out by the Talisman; that had lasted only a few seconds, while this had lasted the entire two hours.

After several agonizing minutes, 1 felt something in him finally give out. He carefully slid 7 off his shoulder so that she harmlessly landed on her back. 1 then fell face-down onto the dusty dirt.

1 didn't care about the fact that he was still a long way from the cathedral. He didn't care that he could die out here in the ruins. He didn't care about what happened to him. He didn't care about anything. The only thing that went through his mind was the hope that 7 would get back to the cathedral safely; whether she woke up and went back herself or if somebody found them and took them back, he didn't care. He only hoped that a machine wouldn't find them first. As a small droplet of water landed on his arm, 1 closed his eyes, readying himself for his inevitable death.

Suddenly, 1 felt a hand on his arm and he heard 7, terror-stricken, calling out his name. He curled up his hand to show that he could hear her. From the sound of her voice, 1 could tell that she was very concerned. He ignored her panicked statements for him to say something; he was too weak anyway.

She soon stopped talking and started making small crying sounds. 1 knew that 7's pregnancy was making her more emotional, but he still felt a bit touched. Wait… Her pregnancy… Oh no…

An abrupt realization hit 1; there was no way 7 would be able to get to the cathedral by herself. Her obvious pregnancy, coupled with the fact that it was starting to rain and the lengthy distance to the cathedral, meant that getting back without help was both unhealthy and dangerous. Not only would she not be able to defend herself if she was attacked by a machine, but so much physical activity would be both strenuous and risky, especially since she would likely get cold from the rain, and it was very possible for the stitchpunks to die of hypothermia (it had nearly happened to 1 once).

7 knew this and, since there was a severe lack of adequate shelter from rain nearby, did not have much optimism about what was going to happen.

However, help was much closer than either of them thought…

**Author's note: This didn't seem repetitive at any point, did it?**

**1****Note: Anthony did not actually say a swear word. I censored it because some people have not figured out what Brutus did to 2, and I don't want the image of what he did to stick in their heads…**

**I have received enough adequate reviews and I will not be taking down the story. I still encourage you guys to review, though.**

**Also, I'm thinking about rewriting the 1****st**** and 2****nd**** chapters so they fit the rest of the story better. They won't be major rewrites, but this is just a heads-up.**

**One last thing; would SOMEBODY PLEASE ask Celestial Rainstorm to work on her story? I can't as I'm not allowed to PM her (not fully sure why) and I'm not sure if other people are having that problem. And I'm not going to post a review asking her why she hasn't updated for so long.**

**And that's all I think I have to say for now.**


	19. Mostly Filler

**The title, I think, describes the chapter.**

Heather said, "You did WHAT to 2?"

Brutus said, "I stuffed him-"

"That was a rhetorical question, Brutus."

Brutus grinned. "I know."

"Brutus, how could you do that? It's a good thing I hadn't eaten for a while before I found out. I did find out what the color of bile was, though."

"Ooo, I wish I had seen that."

"Are you TRYING to get me to throw up?"

"At first, no, but you've made me want to."

"…You disgust me, Brutus."

"Would I be correct in assuming that you would like to 'teach me' to do what I did to 2?"

Heather stared at him in surprise. Would it really be that easy?

Brutus swung his arms out to the side. "Go ahead. Do whatever you want. I won't fight back! Unless you try to strangle me or something like that."

Heather stared at him in suspicion for several moments before finally lunging at him, just as it started to rain…

Insert story breaker here

7 awoke slowly, feeling tired and sore. When she heard loud gasping, she was afraid that it was her until she regained her senses enough to realize that it sounded distinctly male. And right next to her.

She sat up and looked. It was 1, who had apparently collapsed forward into the dusty dirt and was now gasping horrendously, his eyes closed.

7, having no idea what had happened and feeling very concerned about 1 (her concern being amplified as a result of her pregnancy), grabbed his wrist and yelled out his name several times, hoping that he would respond somehow. He did; by clenching his fist.

7 looked around. There wasn't a good hiding spot anywhere nearby. She could try to take him to the cathedral…but that would be madness. Normally, she'd be very capable of doing so, but right now, she was totally responsible for not only her welfare, but that of someone much more fragile as well. Trying to carry 1 on her back all the way to the cathedral would be a very strenuous effort, and besides, not only was she incapable of standing up (though capable of crawling), but it was getting quite cold.

Suddenly, she felt a small droplet of water land on her arm. The small droplets from the sky soon became an increasingly heavy rain.

7 looked at the sky almost incredulously. She had enough problems already. Why did it have to rain now?

7 curled up as much as she could without pressing too hard against her distended abdomen. Her skin quickly became soaked with water, and the warmth in her body quickly reached the same level as her hopes that she would get home safely; she had none.

Suddenly, something grabbed 1 and 7 from behind. 7 strained to look. When she saw it, a wave of horror swept through her. It was the Wolf Beast. The Wolf Beast placed the two stitchpunks on its back and ran as fast as it could…to the cathedral. 7, upon realizing this, felt deeply surprised. A machine, a minion of their sworn enemy, was taking them home? Surely they had been ordered to bring any of the stitchpunks they found back to the Fabrication Machine… Of course, 1 was clearly in terrible condition… He probably wouldn't make it to the factory…

7's confusion quickly faded and she turned her attention to 1, who was on the verge of falling off. 7 wrapped her left arm around him and held him close to her, her right hand clinging onto the Wolf Beast tightly.

The rain was so heavy, the sound caused by the raindrops hitting the ground was almost deafening. It also made it hard to see. If anybody had been nearby, the Wolf Beast would've looked more like a skeletal wolf than a machine. The sounds made by the Wolf as it ran towards the cathedral were able to get above the sound of the rain, but not by that much. It almost drowned out 1's horrendous gasping.

1 didn't know what they had been rescued by and he didn't exactly care. He feebly tried to hold onto the thing with one hand while his other hand hung limply from his side.

In the darkness caused by the night and the clouds, if 7 had closely looked at 1, she would've noticed that he had a faint blue glow to him…

Insert story breaker here

Jarac trembled before the being that loomed over him. It was none other than Monstralio, the God of Destruction. Jarac had been forcibly taken to Monstralio's "consciousness" (or "camera obscura" as some called it).

Monstralio, who looked disturbingly similar to the Fabrication Machine, glared down at Jarac.

"You have failed me, Jarac."

Jarac said, "N-no, master, please, l-let me explain. I-I did as you told me. I took the ragdoll with the unborn child out of the tower. An elderly ragdoll had come with her. I cast him to the side and I used the Azure spirit to kill the child, but the elderly ragdoll pushed her out of the way before I could expose the spirit for long enough. He got too close and…"

"And his soulheart burst." Monstralio sounded calmer.

"Yes." Jarac relaxed.

"Oh, you FOOL!"

"Yipe!"

"I TOLD YOU TO PREVENT ANYBODY FROM INTERFERING BY PUTTING UP A BARRIER! DID YOU FORGET TO DO THAT?"

"Um…"

Monstralio grabbed Jarac in one of his clawed hands and squeezed him tightly.

"YOU… I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO CALL YOU ANYMORE! YOUR IDIOCY IS BEYOND A LINGUAL DESCRIPTION! In fact, I don't think it would be wise to allow you to keep the Spirits of Color anymore…"

Jarac could only watch as Monstralio tore a hole in his "skin" and took out the Spirits of Color, which he kept inside him. Monstralio ensured that the process was as painful as possible.

When he was done, Monstralio said, "Wait… You have only six spirits. Where is the Crimson spirit?"

Jarac, who was on the ground and now resembled a deflated ball, was barely able to say, "I…encountered…your v…vessel… I…It t-took…the…spirit…"

"It did? Amusing, especially since my vessel is just an automaton and you are the embodiment of the power of Jaracnabo, the most powerful being that ever existed."

Jarac thought, _I would be a lot more powerful if you hadn't stripped me of what I had…_

Monstralio said, "In case you have forgotten, I am able to hear your thoughts. Say, let's use that to find out how my vessel was able to take the Crimson spirit from you."

Jarac, who had almost extreme mental control, was able to make his mind a total blank.

Monstralio said, "You honestly think you can resist me? You have forgotten your current place, Jarac."

He then looked through Jarac's memories of his brief excursion to the planet.

"My, my, my, looks like those canyons Color put in were a good location for the portal to The Void after all. Now, back to The Void with you."

A small portal appeared next to Monstralio, and he dropped the deflated Jarac into it.

Monstralio said to himself, "So, my vessel has a device that can steal souls AND it now contains the Spirit of Crimson. Looks like Fate has decided to work the circumstances in my favor. There is the possibility of the Crimson spirit deciding to settle, but it has never done that. Good thing, too, because it could turn out badly if that happened. …Author, why are you making me talk to myself?"

Your last sentences provide foreshadowing.

"Foreshadowing for what?"

For an upcoming event.

"Could you be more specific?"

I don't want to spoil it. Besides, you're not supposed to know.

"Why not?"

It doesn't involve you personally. And with that…

"Hey! I'm not done talking to you!"

Let's move on to the next section.

Insert story breaker here

Heather punched Brutus in the face. He quickly shook it off.

Heather was cold, wet, tired, and frustrated. Brutus was just as cold and wet as she was (if not more so), but no matter how many times she hit him, he just shook it off and resumed his stance. Eventually, Heather had to stop…because her mother had found her.

Maurice said, "Heather! There you are! What are you doing out here in the rain? …No, don't answer that. Let's get home first."

She gently grabbed Heather's hand and took her back to their caravan. Brutus was reluctant to head back to his caravan as him and Stacy were now the only occupants; the leader of the Intell tribe, who was also in charge of placing orphans with new families, was unsure about what to do with them; when testing their psychological health, he had discovered that the two children were surprising dominating, especially Stacy. As such, he decided to let Stacy have guardianship over her brother and would check on how things were going every once in a while (Stacy had refused to be separated from her brother). Little did he know just how much his decision would affect Stacy in the future…

Meanwhile, Maurice had taken Heather inside their caravan and was now drying her off. Anthony and Marion, his father, were having a small discussion at the table they had meals at.

Marion said, "Anthony, why do you spend so much time with those dolls?"

Anthony said, "You mean the stitchpunks?"

"Whatever they're called, why do you spend so much time with them?"

"…Because they're good people."

"They're not people, they're dolls."

"I meant it figuratively. They have good personalities and they're enjoyable to be around."

"But they're dolls."

"So?"

"They're not alive like we are."

"True, but they have human souls."

"What makes you think that?"

"What makes you think that they don't have souls?"

"Anthony, I've already told you, there's no such thing as souls. Even if there were, just because those dolls act like humans doesn't mean that they would have souls. Besides, only humans could have human souls, and they aren't around anymore."

Kathleen, who lived with them, said, "What if we're humans and not hunans as we've always thought?"

Marion said, "If it wasn't for the obvious sarcasm in your voice, I would think quite hard about that. And please Kathleen, don't interrupt."

Anthony said, "…You've never met the stitchpunks, have you dad?"

"No, and I don't want to."

"Oh…"

Maurice sighed and rolled her eyes. There were times when she couldn't understand her stubborn husband. Maurice had never met the stitchpunks, but, from what her children had told her, it would be more than worth her time to do so.

Maurice said, "I'd like to."

Marion was surprised. "What? But…Maurice…"

Kathleen rolled her eyes as Maurice and Marion got into another one of their arguments. The couple's personalities were not very compatible, but their arguments fortunately never became violent. Maurice was a kind, loving woman who had looked forward to being able to raise children all her life. She was devoted and determined to give her children the best upbringing she could give them.

Marion was indifferent and stubborn. Those were the only words anybody could use to describe him. His indifferent attitude was the result of his upbringing by his parents, who saw him as little more than a small burden that they had to feed. They had not been planning on having a child and were certainly not devoted enough to properly take care of one. They were willing to take care of his physical needs but that was it. They had always assumed that he would develop in the other areas by spending time with others, but they had grossly underestimated how much of an impact they had on their son's social development. As a result of their indifference, Marion was left unable to relate to others, leaving him unable to fit in with the other children, which ultimately left him with an extreme stubbornness and an equally extreme indifference.

That was why he married Maurice. She was a Worken raised by extremely devoted Hilians, making her the complete opposite of Marion. To Marion, Maurice represented everything that he had never had. In order to get it, he would have to claim her as his. It was extremely difficult. Her guardians were reluctant to consider letting him marry Maurice because of his poor upbringing (which, sadly, was common among the Worken tribe).

However, due to Maurice's beauty and fantastic personality, numerous men also wanted to marry her. Maurice's guardians, to be fair, let her choose who to marry after letting her spend time with each suitor. For reasons that she had yet to reveal, she had immediately chosen Marion as her husband. Her guardians were unable to argue. At the time, he had felt like the luckiest man in the world. And he still felt that way, though he never revealed it. His parents had always discouraged him from showing his emotions, and they had always told him what to do and what to say. They had also discouraged him from showing any empathy or sympathy to others unless it was "reasonable". If his parents were in the caravan with him (they were still alive), they would've approved of him saying that he didn't think of the dolls as truly alive. It was what they would've said. He didn't want to risk them finding out that he had different ideals than them.

Finally, Anthony said, "Dad, why are you such a jerk?"

Marion was stunned. That was the very first time any of his children had insulted him right in front of his face.

To Anthony's surprise, his father calmly said, "Because of my parents."

Heather said, "You have parents?"

"Of course I do. And they aren't people I'd want you to meet."

The discussion ended there.

**Author's note: …I have to admit something; I'm not sure if I like my own story. I like Howl by Hountricky because it's sweet and has a great atmosphere to it. I like Let Go by The Feather of Pepa and The Tale of BRAIN by ThornWolf the Loyal because I think the Fabrication Machine is an awesome villain. I like Eternal Family by Celestial Rainstorm for several reasons.**

**As for my story… Well, it has the Fabrication Machine (whom is going to play a much larger role later on in the story) and 7 being pregnant (which I was not open to before I read Howl) and each of the dead stitchpunks coming back (which I didn't do as well as I could have), but…that's about it.**

**My criticisms of my own story are this: there are a large number of OCs in the story, and I try to give background to all of them, which has gotten some people confused; I don't focus on the original characters as often as I should (which is probably why the more famous members of this fanfic category have not reviewed this story since the first few chapters, which is a little upsetting to me); the plot itself can get confusing at times; I keep introducing new characters, which can also get people confused; I didn't bring back the other stitchpunks as well as I could have (by that, I mean that the reunion scenes were quite brief and didn't have much emotion in them); and the story itself is likely going to end up being longer than all of my other stories combined, meaning that it's going to take a long time before the story is finally finished. As such, I have decided that, instead of doing two more stories in this category, I'll do just this story. I wouldn't do this if it weren't for the fact that I have a story in another category that I should work on and I'm planning on doing another one in the same category.**

**And Bandling, when you review, don't just thank me for updating or ask me to update soon, describe how you feel about each chapter. It would be much more helpful.**

**And would SOMEBODY ask Cel why she hasn't updated her Eternal Family story for weeks? I'd do it myself, but I can't PM her, and I'm not going to post a review to one of her stories asking so.**

**Also, you might have noticed, but I'm a little reluctant to get to the scene where the Wolf Beast gets 1 and 7 back to the tower because I haven't fully figured out a small but quite important part of the scene.**

**Sorry I haven't updated recently. Lack of interest…**

**I'm done.**


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